


Saffron and Cayenne Pepper

by dontsaycrazy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, And hot neighbor Kageyama is there to offer his very reluctant help, Because platonic HinaYachi gives me life, Cooking, Cooking Lessons, Featuring platonic HinaYachi being the cutest flatmates, Fluff, Hinata can't cook to save his life, M/M, Mentions of KiyoYachi, Neighbors, Romance, Slow Burn, There's gonna be some cursing because Kageyama is the Japanese Gordon Ramsay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-03-21 06:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3680937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontsaycrazy/pseuds/dontsaycrazy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cooking is hard. Even if you have your very attractive, very grumpy neighbor there to help you.</p><p>In which Hinata's lack of cooking skills are a danger to him and others. Luckily (or not), Kageyama is willing to teach him, if only for the sake of avoiding any burned down apartments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

     “Shouyou!”

     Hinata lets out a soft sigh when Yachi’s panicked voice reaches him from her bedroom for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes. He places a stack of books on his bed from a box he’s currently unpacking before shouting back in response.

     “What is it?”

     “I can’t find my-” the girl starts, but then promptly cuts herself off. “Forget it, I found it!”

     Hinata chuckles to himself and shakes his head with a smile of endearment. But the smile quickly fades from his face to be replaced with a scowl once he notices that something’s missing. He empties the rest of the box’s contents on his bed, and frantically searches around his belongings.

     “Yachi!” he calls out in a slightly panicked voice. “Have you seen my mom’s cookbook?”

     “Your mom’s cookbook?” comes Yachi’s confused answer.

     “Yes!”

     “Ah! The one that belonged to your grandma?”

     “Yes!”

     “Didn’t you put it with your clothes?”

     Hinata drops the book he’s currently holding, and then scrambles to the only closed box that’s left on the floor of his new bedroom. He quickly tears off the tape that’s holding the lids together and digs inside until he finds the book. Letting out a relieved sigh, Hinata hugs it against his chest.

     “Did you find it?” Yachi’s voice reaches him from the doorway, where she’s standing with a concerned look on her face.

     Grinning widely, Hinata extends his arms to show the small, worn-out book to his friend. She smiles back at him, and then walks over to sit next to him on the floor. Yachi rests her head on Hinata’s shoulder, and he presses his cheek to her head. Both of them let out a soft sigh at the comforting gesture.

     “Moving in kinda sucks…” Yachi says, and Hinata nods in agreement. They only arrived to their new apartment this morning, and they’re already stressed out and tired, wanting to do nothing but sleep for a couple hours. Or maybe a couple days.

     “There’s too much to do!” Hinata whines, eliciting a tiresome groan from Yachi. “Arranging furniture, cleaning, unpacking…”

     “But we’re here, Shouyou!” Yachi exclaims, perking up all of sudden. She places her hands on his shoulders with an excited grin, and moves her face closer to his. “We’re in Tokyo!”

     A bright smile spreads across Hinata’s lips, mirroring the one on the girl’s face.

     “We’re in Tokyo!” he repeats, and Yachi’s smile grows even wider.

 ~•~

     “I’m home!” Hinata calls out as soon as he closes the front door behind him.

     “Welcome home!” Yachi greets him, emerging from her bedroom in her pajamas. “How was your day?”

     Hinata offers a low groan as an answer, before flopping face down on the couch.

     “I’m so tired…” he mumbles, earning a sympathetic grimace from Yachi. “College is _way_ harder than high school…”

     “I know, I know,” she says. “My day was tough, too.”

     Yachi walks over to the couch, and does a tiny gesture with his head. Hinata scoots away to leave room for her on the couch, and waits until the girl sits down to place his head on her lap. Yachi’s hands immediately find Hinata’s orange locks, and she begins to caress his hair in the most soothing way.

     They’re entirely okay with this level of intimacy. Three years of friendship have made the two of them extremely close, and their closeness and easiness with each other’s presence reflects on a great amount of physical contact. Hugs and cuddles are given without second thought between them, especially when one of them has had a tough day, or needs comforting. And Hinata has to admit that there are few things more relaxing than Yachi’s fingers running through his hair.

     They stay like that for a couple of minutes, silently enjoying each other’s presence, until Yachi’s voice breaks the silence.

     “It’s almost time for dinner. Anything you want to eat?”

     “Pizza?” Hinata offers, shifting on the couch to look up at her.

     “We’ve been eating pizza for three days straight now!”

     “Well, it can’t be helped! It’s not like any of us can cook.”

     They both grimace at the memories of their past attempts to cook. Cleaning up a huge, uselessness-induced mess is definitely not on their list of things to do tonight.

     “Okay, but it doesn’t have to be pizza every night!” Yachi complains with a pout. Hinata thinks it over for a moment, biting on his lower lip.

     “I think I _really_ want some meat buns…” he says thoughtfully, and then looks at her again. “You think they sell them at the convenience store?”

     “It’s worth checking,” Yachi says. She jumps off the couch and pads over to her bedroom. “I’ll get changed and go with you.”

     After she disappears behind her bedroom door, Hinata stretches out on the couch, and smiles softly at the tingling sensation that Yachi’s fingers left on his scalp. Looking up at the roof, Hinata silently thanks the heavens for Yachi Hitoka’s existence.

~•~

     Their first weekend in Tokyo finally rolls over, and it feels like an oasis in the middle of a desert for the two of them. Their first weekend in college has felt like an eternity; between graphic design projects, volleyball practice, unpacking, and cup noodles, both Yachi and Hinata realize that college life is not as easy as it seemed.

     Yachi is snoring on the couch when Hinata walks into their living room that morning, yawning widely and rubbing his eyes in an attempt to get rid of any remnants of sleepiness. Her laptop rests, forgotten, on the coffee table beside her, and she looks terribly adorable with her messy hair and sprawled limbs. After he sees her, Hinata returns to his bedroom, and then comes back into the living room with a blanket, which he carefully places over her sleeping form.

     Hinata looks at Yachi with a tiny smile, before heading to the kitchen with another big yawn. He’s busy with exploring the fridge for something he can eat, when a loud screech startles him. Hinata scrambles to the living room (hitting his head on the fridge shelf in the process), and finds Yachi in the middle of a gigantic freak-out.

     “What happened!?” he asks.

     “I fell asleep!” Yachi exclaims in a panicked voice, jumping from the couch, and nearly tripping with Hinata’s blanket. “Shouyou, what time is it!?”

     “I don’t know, around ten, I think. Why?”

     “Ah, I’m late!” Yachi interrupts him, and then runs to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

     “Late?” Hinata asks, following her to stand behind the closed door. “Late to where?”

     Yachi emerges from her bedroom a few moments later, nearly hitting Hinata in the face with the door in her hurried haze. The redhead looks at her with evident confusion on his face, watching as she tries to zip her pants with one hand, and fix her hair with the other. If there’s one thing that can’t be denied, is the fact that Yachi Hitoka is a champ at getting dressed in under a minute.

     “I told my mom I’d visit her today,” she explains, groaning in frustration when the bobby pins she was holding fall from her hand. “But I overslept and I might miss my train!”

     “Here, let me,” Hinata says, picking up the pins from the floor to carefully place them on her hair. “There you go!” he says with a smile, and Yachi hugs him tightly in gratitude.

     The girl lets him pat her back a couple times, before hurrying to her bedroom to pick up her bags.

     “Do you want me to come with you to the station?” Hinata asks, helping her carry her luggage to the door.

     “No, it’s fine,” Yachi says. She opens the front door, and then turns to envelop Hinata in another tight hug. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” she says when they part. “Try not to miss me too much!”

     “I’ll try!” Hinata jokes with a smile, and Yachi blows him a kiss before she leaves the apartment, closing the door behind her.

     And with that, Hinata is left alone.

 ~•~

     Around twelve, Hinata’s stomach begins to rumble. Once he’s too hungry to ignore it, he reluctantly gets up from the couch, and pads over to the kitchen to look for something he can eat. After all, it’s not like he can survive on cereal all day long.

     The fridge and the cupboards are devoid of anything instantaneous that he can just throw in the microwave. Hinata sighs with annoyance at the prospect of having to go to the convenience store, and then, his eyes fall on his mom’s old cookbook, resting, forgotten, on top of the microwave.

     He takes it in his hands and stares at the cover, where bright colored dishes shine, elaborate and delicious. Just as he is about to place it back where it was, his mother’s voice rings across his head.

     _“You have to eat properly, Shou-chan!”_ she had said to him the night before he left to Tokyo. _“And you need to learn how to cook, so I’ll give you my mom’s cookbook. It’s pretty easy to follow, there’s no way you can fail!”_ she had assured him with a big smile on her face, and Hinata would’ve believed her, if it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t even hard-boil an egg without the neighbors calling the firefighters.

     _“Well, I might as well give it a shot,”_ Hinata thinks, opening the book and flipping through the pages, looking for something that looks easy enough so that even he can cook it.

     He finally finds something attractive enough, judging by the shiny picture that adorns the pages: carbonara pasta. That looks easy.

 ~•~

     As it turns out, carbonara pasta is not, in fact, easy. Not in the least.

     That’s all Hinata can think when he takes the lid off the pot, and finds that almost all the water has evaporated, leaving behind a miniature disaster of dry, burned spaghettis. He lets out a whiny groan and runs his hands down his face, cursing the very moment he decided to try and make something even remotely edible.

     In the last half an hour, Hinata has managed to make the lid fall from the salt shaker and on top of the cream (along with an outrageous amount of salt), end up with a handful of eggs twice while trying to crack them against the counter, and throw the garlic in the sauce without chopping it first. And now, he has burned down the pasta in the most ridiculous possible way.

     Hinata takes the pot off the fire, and stares at it helplessly, wondering how exactly he managed to screw up so badly.

     “Ugh, goddammit!” he exclaims, taking off his apron and throwing it behind his back.

     Just as he is about to pull out his cellphone to call his favorite pizza place, the distinct smell of burning fabric reaches his nose. Hinata turns around in a heartbeat, and lets out a loud scream at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

~•~

     “Okay, that’s _it_!” Kageyama exclaims angrily, slamming his laptop shut. He’s definitely had it with whoever his downstairs neighbor is. Loud, banging noises and shrill screaming had been coming from under his floor for at least half an hour now, and he is _not_ going to put up with it anymore.

     Kageyama stomps his way downstairs, face crumpled into an annoyed frown, and fists curled into balls at his sides. He quickly finds himself in front of the noisy neighbor’s door, where he can clearly hear falling pots and some more screaming. Kageyama takes a moment to wonder what exactly is this person doing to cause such a ruckus, before he knocks harshly on the door.

     There’s a beat of silence on the other side of the door, before the sound of frantic footsteps can be heard. As soon as he sees the doorknob beginning to turn, Kageyama opens his mouth to give the noisy neighbor a piece of his mind. But before he can even utter one word, a string of barely coherent words interrupt him.

     “PLEASE HELP ME, MY KITCHEN’S ON FIRE!”

     Kageyama’s eyebrows shoot up across his forehead, and he lets out a confused “Huh?” He can barely catch sight of an unruly set of orange locks, and wide brown eyes, before he’s being pulled inside the apartment.

     “Hey, what the hell-!?” Kageyama exclaims, shaking free from his neighbor’s grasp. Just as he is about to keep yelling, his eyes flicker to the kitchen in front of him, and he immediately lets out a strangled yelp, barely audible amongst the frightened cries of his neighbor.

     This guy’s kitchen _really_ is on fire.

     Over the stove, the remnants of what looks like it used to be an apron are burning bright, the flames swaying dangerously close to the curtains. A quick glance around the kitchen also reveals a massive mess of kitchenware, pots, paper towels, and egg shells.

     “Shit…” Kageyama mumbles. He is thoroughly convinced that he has never seen a most disastrous kitchen situation. And that’s saying a lot.

     “Yes, _shit!_ ” the smaller boy next to him exclaims. “Now, help me!”

     He runs towards the burning stove, and sways a rag towards the flames in a useless attempt to extinguish them. But the only thing the redhead is succeeding on, is fanning the fire, and making it bigger.

     “You idiot!” Kageyama yells, running after him.

     Doing his best to ignore the panicked screams of his neighbor, Kageyama looks around the kitchen for something he can fill with enough water to put out the fire. After a few seconds of frantic searching, his eyes fall on a steaming pot next to the sink, and he immediately reaches out to grab it.

     Once the _goddamned_ pot is finally full of water, Kageyama barely remembers to warn the other boy with a quick _“Move!”_ , before he throws the water on the fire, effectively putting it out.

     Listening to the sizzling sound of the fire being extinguished, both boys breathe heavily, staring wide-eyed at the pathetic remnants of the apron that remain on the wet stove. Kageyama is still gripping the pot by the handles, and when he turns to look inside it, he is surprised to see a bunch of burned spaghettis, now completely wet, sticking to the bottom of it.

     “What the hell is this?” he wonders aloud, frowning in confusion.

     “Ah, that!” the smaller boy grimaces when he looks inside the pot as well. “That… was supposed to be my lunch, I guess…”

     Kageyama looks up at him, and blinks slowly a couple times, before returning his gaze to the spaghettis.

     “How much water did you put into this?” he asks quietly.

     “I don’t know… About a cup?”

     Kageyama just stares incredulously at the smaller boy, because _how could someone be so stupid?_

     “One cup,” Kageyama says slowly, trying to make sense of the fact that this guy actually tried to cook an entire pack of pasta with _one freaking cup of water._

     The smaller boy nods slowly, shifting uncomfortably under Kageyama’s intense gaze.

     “This isn’t even a mistake,” he says after a few moments of silent judging. “This is just pure idiocy.”

     “S-shut up!” his neighbor squeaks. His cheeks tint with embarrassment, and he looks down at his feet with a defeated look on his face. “I’m not really good at cooking, okay?”

     “No shit,” Kageyama deadpans, earning an offended glare from the redhead.

     “Wow, you’re an asshole!”

     “I just saved your life!”

     “I could’ve done that myself!”

     “You were only making it worse!” Kageyama cuts off the other boy before he can answer. “And you were the one who started the fire in the first place! What the hell were you even trying to make?”

     The redhead looks down at his feet again, pouting slightly.

     “Carbonara pasta,” he mumbles, before walking over to the stove to pick up a pan, now entirely filled with water. “And this was supposed to be the sauce…”

     “Carbonara pasta?” Kageyama repeats, raising one eyebrow.

     “It looked easy in the book, ok!?” the smaller boy says defensively. It looks like he’s about to say something else, when he suddenly gasps sharply, his eyes widening. “The book!”

     He runs to the counter, and promptly picks an old-looking book. The boy examines it to make sure neither the fire or the water damaged it, before holding to his chest with a relieved sigh.

     “Thank God…” he mumbles.

     “What’s your name?” Kageyama asks all of sudden.

     “Hinata,” the smaller boy answers, surprised by the sudden question. “Hinata Shouyou.”

     _“Hinata Shouyou,”_ Kageyama repeats in his mind.

     “And you are?” Hinata’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts.

     “Kageyama Tobio. I live right above you.”

     “Well, thanks for helping me out, Kageyama-san!” Hinata says with a wide smile, and Kageyama’s eyebrows twitch slightly at the sight of what could probably be the brightest grin he has ever seen.

     “Don’t mention it,” he mumbles, looking away from Hinata’s cheerful face. “Just… Don’t burn your kitchen again.”

     They are immersed in an awkward silence for a few seconds. Kageyama is about to turn to leave, when Hinata’s voice reaches his ears again.

     “So… Would you help me clean out this mess?” he asks, pointing with his thumb at the disaster that is now his kitchen.

     “No way!” Kageyama says with a deep frown. “It’s _your_ kitchen, and _your_ mess!”

     The raven turns around to leave, but he stops in his tracks when Hinata grabs him by the sleeve.

     “Then-!” the smaller boy starts, but he interrupts himself when Kageyama turns to glare at him. Hinata gulps audibly, and a light blush spreads across his cheeks, before he finishes his sentence. “Would you… help me cook?”

 ~•~

     Kageyama isn’t really sure _why_ he agreed to this. Looking back, he probably thought that teaching Hinata how to cook at least one dish would decrease the amount of noise he’d have to hear from him. And he probably wouldn’t have to put out any more fires in a while.

     Yeah, that’s what he thought.

     But right now, as he watches Hinata failing to break the third egg in a row, and whine while he stares at the mess of yolk running down his clumsy hand, Kageyama curses himself a thousand times. Because Hinata Shouyou is, in fact, the noisiest, dumbest creature he has ever met.

     “What the hell are you doing, you dumbass!?” Kageyama exclaims, earning a flinch and a terrified look from Hinata.

     “I’m sorry!”

     “Just… move. I’ll do it.”

     Already beyond exhausted from witnessing Hinata’s utter uselessness, Kageyama pushes him away from the stove. Pouting, the smaller boy jumps up to sit on the counter next to him, and watches carefully as Kageyama picks up an egg, and taps it slightly against the rim of a bowl, before cracking it open with one hand.

     “Wow!” Hinata says, face shining with a mixture of amazement and admiration. “How do you do that?”

     “It’s _easy_ ,” Kageyama says, rolling his eyes. “Everybody can crack an egg.”

     “It’s not easy,” Hinata mumbles, a small pout reappearing on his face. “And you do it with one hand! How do you do that?”

     “Practice, I guess.”

     Kageyama reaches out for another egg to crack it open on the bowl, and then another two. Hinata watches him with the utmost attention, letting out tiny sounds of appreciation at the sight of the raven’s skilled hands.

     Once he’s done cracking the eggs, Kageyama extends one hand towards Hinata, without even looking at him.

     “Spoon,” he commands, and Hinata scrambles to grab a wooden spoon from a nearby drawer. He hands it to Kageyama, who immediately begins to whisk the eggs with fast, fluid motions. “Okay, now grab the salt.”

     Hinata does as he says, and takes the salt shaker in one hand, with an expectant look on his face.

     “Now, _slowly_ , put some salt into this,” Kageyama instructs, bringing the bowl close to Hinata. “ _Slowly_.”

     “Slowly. I get it,” Hinata mumbles to himself, and he gives a shaky nod, before carefully moving the salt shaker over the eggs.

     Both boys watch as the salt slowly falls on the bowl with each one of Hinata’s movements. The shorter boy bites on his lower lip, focusing on being careful.

     “Thanks okay, stop,” Kageyama says, and Hinata retrieves the salt shaker. “Now pepper.”

     They repeat the same process, with pepper this time, until Kageyama tells Hinata to stop.

     “Always be careful when adding salt and pepper,” he explains while whisking the eggs again. “If your food is missing salt, you can always add more. However, if you use too much, then fixing it will be way harder.”

     “So, I should add it little by little?”

     “At first. Eventually, you’ll learn how much salt your food needs. But for now, you’re still useless, so yeah.”

     Ignoring Hinata’s offended look, Kageyama puts the bowl down, and looks around the kitchen.

     “You don’t have oregano, do you?” he asks, earning a confused look from Hinata.

     “Ore- _what_?” he says, and Kageyama sighs.

     “Of course you don’t.”

     Kageyama picks up the bowl again, and pours half of its contents on a frying pan over the stove. A nice sizzling sound fills the kitchen, along with the familiar smell of eggs being cooked.

     “Did you chop the onion like I told you?” Kageyama asks, and Hinata nods, handing him a small plate.

     Kageyama notices how awfully cut the onion is, but he decides to ignore it. He pours it on another frying pan, and extends his hand towards Hinata. The redhead hands him another plate, full of finely chopped ham. Kageyama was the one who cut it, and the difference between it and Hinata’s sad, irregular onions is noticeable.

     “You’re really good at this,” Hinata comments, while Kageyama puts the ham on the pan along with the onion, and stirs it with the wooden spoon.

     “I guess.”

     “You’ve been cooking for a long time?”

     “Since I was little.”

     “And do you cook a lot?”

     “I’m a chef.”

     _“That explains it,”_ Hinata thinks. Kageyama’s answers are short and absent-minded, showing how focused he is on the task as hand. His black eyes are set on the ingredients he’s working with, slowly cooking in their respective pans. His hands work with practiced ease, moving accurately. They’re quick, but careful, and soon enough, Hinata finds himself lost in the movement of those skillful hands.

     “Here,” Kageyama’s voice brings him back to reality, along with a bag of grated mozzarella being shoved into his chest. “Put the cheese on the eggs.”

     “How much?” Hinata asks, grabbing the bag with both hands.

     “As much as you want.”

     A wide smile spreads across Hinata’s face. He can definitely work with those instructions.

~•~

     “There,” Kageyama says, slowly sliding the finished food on a plate. “Piece of cake.”

     Hinata’s eyes nearly sparkle at the wonderful sight before him: on two separate plates, rest two delicious-looking omelets, steaming, and smelling wonderfully.

     “Wah, it looks so good!” he exclaims with a gigantic grin on his face.

     “You still used too much cheese,” Kageyama complains, frowning slightly.

     “You told me to use as much as I wanted!”

     “I never expected you to use so much, you cheese-monster!” Hinata sticks out his tongue at him, and Kageyama has to resist the urge to grab him by the nose. The raven pinches the bridge of his nose, and sighs. “Whatever. It should still be edible.”

     Just as he finishes his sentence, Hinata’s stomach rumbles loudly, and Kageyama snorts.

     “Shut up, I haven’t eaten in hours!” Hinata says with a blush spreading across his cheeks.

     “Well, I’ll be leaving then,” Kageyama says, stepping out of the kitchen.

     “Wait!” Hinata’s voice stops him just as he’s about to reach the front door. “Are you not gonna stay for lunch?”

     “Huh? Why would I?”

     “Well, you made two plates, so I thought…”

     “You can save one for dinner so you won’t burn down your kitchen again,” Kageyama explains in an annoyed tone. Hinata blinks owlishly at him, and the raven turns to leave again.

     “Kageyama-san!” Hinata’s voice stops him again, and he turns around with a groan.

     “What now?”

     “Um, thanks…” Hinata says, and then shoots him a tiny smile. “For helping me out.”

     “Drop the ‘-san’,” Kageyama says after a moment of silence. He opens the door, and then turns to look at Hinata before he leaves. “And if you burn your kitchen again, I’ll kill you.”

     Kageyama’s threatening words hang in the air, as well as the echoing sound of the door closing behind him. A small frown appears on Hinata’s face, as his previous gratitude fades into annoyance.

     “Jeez, so grumpy…” he mumbles, returning to the kitchen.

     Doing his best to ignore the loud rumbling of his stomach, Hinata grabs a fork, and takes a bite from one of the omelets. An almost pornographic sound leaves him as soon as he begins to chew, and he closes his eyes with delight.

     The guy may be an asshole, but _damn_ , he can cook.

 ~•~

“I swear to god, Shouyou, whoever’s in charge of the Tokyo-Miyagi train line, should seriously consider another profession.”

     Without a word, Hinata reaches out to pat Yachi’s head in a comforting gesture, and keeps watching as the girl unpacks her bags, placing her clothes on the bed next to where he’s seating.

     “I know, the trains suck,” he says, fighting back an amused smile at the sight of his friend’s angry pout. “Aside from that, how was your weekend?”

     “It was fine, I guess,” Yachi says, letting a small smile appear on her face. Suddenly, her expression turns sour again, and she places one of her shirts on the bed with a lot more force than necessary. “Except for the goddamn-!”

     “I know, the trains suck,” Hinata repeats, patting her head again. Yachi sighs, and shoots him a tiny smile.

     “So, how was your weekend?” she asks, returning her attention to her bag.

     “Oh, it was fine. I watched movies, studied, almost burned down our kitchen, met our upstairs neighbor…”

     “Is he hot?” Yachi asks without missing a beat.

     “Well, yeah, kinda-” Hinata starts, but then interrupts himself. He looks at his friend with an unamused expression on his face. “Yachi, I just told you I almost burned down our kitchen, and that’s all you care about?”

     “Were you trying to cook?”

     “Yes.”

     “I figured,” Yachi finally takes out the last item from her bag, and promptly turns around to look at Hinata with a little smirk. “So, about the hot neighbor…”

     “I never said he was hot!” Hinata exclaims, stammering a little.

     “You did!”

     “Did I?”

     “You did.”

     Silence falls around them after Yachi’s last words, and they stare at each other with unchanging expressions. Finally, Hinata looks down at the floor, and his voice breaks the silence.

     “He helped me cook lunch,” he mumbles, avoiding the topic of Kageyama’s hotness.

     “Wait…” Yachi starts with a low voice, and Hinata looks up at her with silent questioning in his eyes. “You learned how to cook?”

     Hinata nods, and Yachi’s eyes widen in surprise.

     “Nothing especial, just a ham and cheese ome-” Hinata begins to explain, but the girl cuts him off.

     “You need to show me!” she exclaims, grabbing Hinata’s arm to pull him out of her bedroom, and into the kitchen.

 ~•~

     They both stare silently at the pathetic mess of eggs and cheese resting on a plate before them. Yachi raises her gaze to give Hinata a dubious look, and the boy groans.

     “Ok, I still don’t know how to flip it properly,” he says, poking what was supposed to be an omelette, but is now a sad version of scrambled eggs. “But I’m pretty sure it’s edible.”

     “You sure?” Yachi asks with a grimace, looking back at Hinata’s failed omelette.

     “I’m sure!” Hinata says with a mildly annoyed tone of voice. He hands her a fork, which Yachi takes doubtfully. “Go on, try it.”

     Yachi takes a piece of the omelette with her fork, and gives it a questioning look, before shoving it into her mouth. Hinata stares expectantly at her as she chews slowly. Finally Yachi lets out an appreciative sound.

     “Mmm! It actually tastes good!” she says, surprise evident in her voice. A proud smile spreads across Hinata’s face.

     “See? I told you!”

     “So, this guy is hot, _and_ patient enough to teach you how to cook something edible?” Yachi starts, taking another bite of the omelette. “Should I call your parents and tell them about the wedding?”

     “There’s gonna be,” Hinata snatches the plate away from Yachi, and the girl lets out a small whimper. She reaches out her hand in a futile attempt to retrieve it. “No wedding! And he’s not very patient at all, let me tell you…”

     “Nobody would be patient while teaching you how to cook! Remember when you tried to hard-boil an egg and-?”

     “Oh, like _you_ are any better!” Hinata interrupts her, exiting the kitchen with the plate still in his hand.

     Yachi chases after him, and takes the plate from his hands. The girl flops down on the couch, and dives her fork into the omelette.

     “You should learn how to cook other things,” she suggests. “I’m tired of pizza and cup ramen.”

     “How?” Hinata asks, flopping down next to her. He opens his mouth for Yachi to feed him.

     “Ask the hot neighbor!” she says, shoving a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

     “Stop calling him that!” Hinata furiously chews and swallows, before speaking up again. “And no way!”

     “Why not?”

     “He has a _terrible_ personality!”

     “Aw, come on, it can’t be that bad!”

     “And it’d be so embarrassing!” Hinata gets up from the couch, and paces around the living room. Yachi follows him with her eyes, doing her best to hide her amusement. “I can’t just show up at his door and be like ‘Please teach me how to cook’!”

~•~

     “Please teach me how to cook!”

     Kageyama stares incredulously at him, eyebrows raised, and mouth slightly agape.

     “Huh?”

     He hadn’t even fully opened the door, when this guy was already clasping his hands together in a begging gesture, and requesting cooking lessons at an almost incoherent speed. Kageyama blinks a couple times at Hinata, and the redhead raises his head with a hopeful look on his face.

     “You want me to _what_?” Kageyama asks.

     “Teach me how to cook!”

     Silence engulfs them as they stare at each other, one expectant, and the other confused.

     “No way,” Kageyama deadpans after a few seconds. He’s about to close the door, when Hinata reaches out to grab him by the wrist.

     “Please, Kageyama!” Hinata begs with wide eyes. “I’ll pay you!”

     “I don’t want your money!” Kageyama says, feeling the annoyance grow inside him with each passing second. “Let go of me!”

     “Pleeeeeeeaseeeee!”

     With a loud groan, Kageyama shakes himself free from Hinata’s grip. He glares daggers at the smaller boy, inwardly cursing the moment when he decided to help him save his kitchen.

     “Why the hell do you want me to teach you!?”

     “Because you’re like, a king of the kitchen!”

     Hinata’s excited words echo around Kageyama’s head. He stares blankly at the redhead, before slamming the door shut.

     “Ah, Kageyama!” Hinata’s panicked voice reaches him from behind the closed door. “Wait!”

     “Go away!” Kageyama yells out, and then turns to return to his living room.

     “I will stay here until you say yes!”

     “What the hell is wrong with you!?”

     “Come on, Kageyama, I’m begging you!”

     Kageyama runs his hands down his face, and lets out the loudest groan he can muster. He stomps towards the door and flings it open, making Hinata, who was leaning on it, tumble a couple steps, almost falling face-first on the floor.

     “Fine!” Kageyama exclaims, pointing his index finger into Hinata’s face. “But I won’t be patient with you, you hear me?” Hinata nods furiously, eyes wide with excitement. “I’ll make Gordon Ramsey look like a goddamned forest fairy! You’ll have _nightmares_ about me!”

     “Does that mean you’ll teach me?” Hinata asks, barely containing a gigantic grin from spreading across his face.

     “Ugh, YES! Now go away!”

     With that, Kageyama slams the door shut again. He stands there, his shoulders raising and falling to the beat of his heavy breathing, until a loud _“Yahoo!”_ reaches him from behind the closed door.

     Kageyama stomps his way back into the living room, and flops face down on the couch, letting out a massive sigh.

     “Great,” he mumbles, with a tiresome groan. Suddenly, he has become the new cooking teacher of the noisiest, dumbest creature he has ever met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, there! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of KageHina's Kitchen Nightmares! Please let me know what you think and, as always, you can talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr! :)  
> Shout out to my lovely beta, Miss_Macabre_Grey <3


	2. Chapter 2

     “Since you’re completely and utterly useless…”

     “Hey!”

     “We’ll start with something easy,” Kageyama ignores Hinata’s whiny voice, and keeps talking, placing his hands on his hips. Hinata turns his head slightly to the side in a questioning gesture, and Kageyama nods with determination before continuing. “Onigiri.”

     “Onigiri?”

     “It’s easy. Not even _you_ could fuck up something so easy.”

     “Really!?” Hinata’s eyes light up, and a wide smile stretches across his face at the prospect of learning how to cook something not even he could ruin.

     Kageyama stares at his overly-excited face for a moment, and then his eyes dart to the slightly burned curtains that adorn the window of Hinata’s kitchen. He looks back at him, wearing a blank expression on his face.

     “Forget it, you totally can,” he reconsiders, and then watches as Hinata’s face falls into a tiny pout.

     “So mean…” Hinata mumbles dejectedly, but Kageyama ignores him.

     It’s Saturday morning, and, against everything he would’ve wished for, Kageyama is standing in Hinata’s kitchen, wearing his favorite apron, and getting ready for a couple of exhausting hours, in which he’ll try to turn the walking kitchen disaster called Hinata Shouyou, into a creature capable of producing edible food.

     It’s not like he _wants_ to be here. In fact, he’d rather be dancing the Macarena in front of a pack of wild raccoons, wearing nothing but a cheap imitation of Lady Gaga’s meat dress. That would probably be safer than being in Hinata’s kitchen while he tries to cook.

     But Hinata had insisted so much, in such a pathetic way, that Kageyama had no other option than accepting the highly unwanted role of his cooking teacher. Also, he’s pretty sure that by teaching Hinata how to cook without burning anything, he’s contributing to the safety of the whole apartment complex, including himself.

     Kageyama reaches out to grab something from a bag he had brought with himself earlier. He takes out another smaller bag, and places it on the counter in front of Hinata. The smaller boy takes the bag in his hands and stares at it for a moment.

     “Salmon?” he asks.

     “Salted salmon,” Kageyama corrects him. “We’re gonna make shiozake onigiri.”

     Hinata takes his eyes from the salmon, and looks at Kageyama with an excited look on his face (Kageyama could swear his eyes are sparkling), before nodding his head with vigor.

~•~

     While the rice and the salmon are being cooked, Kageyama explains the basics of onigiri-making to Hinata. He stares at him with wide brown eyes, and nods every time Kageyama finishes explaining each step. Hinata takes a moment every once in a while to take notes, scribbling away on a pink, flower-adorned notebook that manages to catch Kageyama’s attention every time Hinata picks it back up from the counter.

     “Then you wrap it up with the seaweed, and that’s it.”

     “Wrap it up with the seaweed,” Hinata mumbles absently, eyes fixed on his notebook while he writes the final step. “Got it!” he says with a bright smile, and then snaps the notebook shut.

     Kageyama can’t help but to wonder how is someone capable of smiling so much all the time.

     The timer that Kageyama had set earlier rings loudly. He walks over to the oven, with Hinata following him closely, and opens it. A delicious smell hits them in the face, along with a wave of steam, and Hinata lets out an appreciative sound. Kageyama turns off the oven, and stares at the salmon to make sure it’s properly cooked. Then, he extends his hand behind his head, and growls out _“mitten”_.

     “You don’t want me to take it out?” Hinata asks while handing the mitten to him.

     “No,” Kageyama says, placing it on his right hand. He notices that it’s adorned with flowers as well, printed on the fabric with shiny colors. “You’ll probably burn yourself and die, or something.”

     “You asshole,” Hinata says through gritted teeth, brows furrowed in an offended expression.

     Kageyama takes a moment to glare at the smaller boy, before reaching to take the salmon out of the oven, and place it carefully on the stove while closing the oven with his leg.

     “Wah, it looks so good!” Hinata exclaims, almost drooling all over the fish.

     “We still need to break it into shreds,” Kageyama says, checking if the rice is ready. When he turns around, Hinata is still staring lovingly at the fish. “Hey, dumbass!” Kageyama calls out, earning Hinata’s attention. “Where’s your apron?”

     “I…” Hinata starts, looking down at the floor and scratching the back of his head. “I burned it, remember?”

     “And you don’t have a spare one?” Kageyama asks with one hand on his hip, and the look on his face tells Hinata that there is no way he’ll let him cook without an apron.

     “Let me check.” Hinata rummages through the drawers, and Kageyama’s eyes follow him all the time. “I’m pretty sure it has to be here… Here it is!” Hinata announces proudly, before tugging at a colorful fabric to take it out of the drawer.

     As soon as Hinata finishes tying the apron around his neck, Kageyama’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. The apron is made with the same flowery pattern as the mitten he’s still wearing.

     “What’s with all the flowers?”

     Hinata gives him a confused look at the question, and Kageyama sighs with exasperation.

     “There’s flowers on everything here,” he elaborates, waving his hand to bring Hinata’s attention to the mitten.

     “Ah, this!” Hinata exclaims, grabbing the apron in his hands and looking at it. Another bright smile lights up his face, and he gives the apron a look of endearment. “My roommate bought it for me as a joke when I told her that you were gonna teach me how to cook.”

     Kageyama looks at the mitten again, and then down at his plain black apron, the complete opposite of the colorful _thing_ Hinata is currently wearing.

     “Now we match!” Hinata says, pointing at the mitten on Kageyama’s hand, and his smile grows even wider.

     Kageyama immediately shakes the mitten off, almost as if it had bitten him.

~•~

     “First of all, you gotta wet your hands. That way, the rice won’t stick to your skin.”

     Hinata does as Kageyama says, and wets his hands on a bowl of water they had previously set on the counter next to the rice. Kageyama does the same thing, and then grabs the salt shaker to put some salt on his hands.

     “You do it too,” he orders while rubbing the salt on his skin, and Hinata rushes to imitate him. “Now put some rice into your hand.”

     Hinata reaches out to scoop about half a spoonful of rice, and carefully places it on his hand. He waits for Kageyama to do the same, watching his every movement with expectancy.

     They keep going like that. They are silent, except when Kageyama has to explain the next step, or Hinata has a question. Both of them are focused on the task at hand, especially Hinata; for Kageyama, cooking seems as natural as breathing. Hinata is pretty sure he could do it while asleep.

     Kageyama discovers that he doesn’t have to speak much. Hinata watches him so carefully, and with so much attention, that he can mimic his actions with relative ease.

     _“Maybe this won’t be_ that _hard,”_ Kageyama thinks, watching as Hinata grabs a little bit of the salmon they broke into shreds earlier, and gingerly places it over the small indentation he just made on the rice he’s holding.

     “Now, play close attention to what I do.”

     Once they’re done with the filling, Kageyama expertly shapes the onigiri in his hands. He does it slower than he usually does, leaving time for Hinata to watch how to do it.

     “See? Easy,” Kageyama says, placing his perfectly shaped onigiri on a plate.

     Hinata nods and, without a word, turns to look intently at the rice in his hand. He breathes in slowly, and proceeds to shape it with as much as care as one would use to defuse a bomb. He looks like a child, with his brows furrowed in concentration, and his bottom lip worried between his teeth in an expression of complete concentration.

     Kageyama is beginning to think that maybe Hinata is not _that_ much of an idiot, when the rice crumbles and falls from Hinata’s hands and to the floor.

     “No!” the redhead exclaims with desperation, staring at the rice like it had betrayed him.

     “You idiot, you’re using too much force!” Kageyama harshly grabs a spoonful of rice, and drops it on Hinata’s hands. The smaller boy looks up at him with wide eyes, and Kageyama responds with an intense glare. “Try again!”

     “Y-yes!” Hinata squeaks, and then hurries to put the filling in place.

     He squeezes less tightly this time, and the rice doesn’t fall apart. But this time, the onigiri ends up looking like the evil, deformed twin of Kageyama’s perfect one.

     “That looks like dog shit,” Kageyama announces after staring silently at Hinata’s failed onigiri for a few seconds.

     “Hey, don’t be such an ass!”

     Hinata’s eyes fall on his deformed onigiri, and he sighs, defeated. He looks like he’s about to throw it behind his back and give up, when Kageyama wraps his long, strong fingers around his hands. Hinata shoots him a look of surprise, but the raven isn’t looking at him.

     “Your hands have to be firmer.”

     Kageyama’s voice is strangely gentle this time, as well as his face. Upon closer inspection, Hinata finds that there is no anger inside his eyes. It’s truly a new sight, an expression on Kageyama’s face that wouldn’t make a baby cry.

     While he’s busy with examining Kageyama’s face, Hinata begins to feel a gentle press around his fingers. It takes him a moment to realize that Kageyama is actually guiding his hands to help him shape up the onigiri, silently indicating him how much force he needs to use.

     Hinata knows he should be focusing on the onigiri, and not on Kageyama’s hands covering his own. But he can’t help but to notice how calloused his palms are, probably from years of holding knifes and spoons, and taking things out of the oven. There are lots of tiny cuts and burns on his fingers, and on the back of his hands, shining with a lighter color than the rest of his skin, and his nails are perfectly cut and filed, probably so they won’t be a bother while he cooks.

     But the thing that catches Hinata’s attention the most, is the way his fingers move with such perfect, calculated movements. He had noticed before, of course, the way Kageyama’s hands look when he works, completely skilled and practiced. But he had never felt them over his own, never imagined how soothing the touch of his fingers helping his own clumsy hands would feel. It was kind of amazing, really.

     “There.” The sound of Kageyama’s voice brings Hinata back to earth, and he blinks in surprise when Kageyama moves his hands away to reveal a nicely shaped onigiri. “Piece of cake.”

     Slowly, a bright grin appears on Hinata’s face. He inspects the onigiri closely, carefully turning it around in his hands.

     “Wow! I made this!” he exclaims proudly like he can’t believe it, earning a snort from Kageyama.

     “Only because I helped you. It looked awful before.” Kageyama crosses his arms over his chest, and rolls his eyes. Hinata glares intensely at him from behind his onigiri. “What? It’s the truth! I can’t believe you _actually_ fucked up onigiri.”

     “Oh, shut up!” Hinata whines. With the utmost care, he places his onigiri next to Kageyama’s and then turns to glare at him again.

     “At least you didn’t burn anything this time,” Kageyama keeps teasing him, and a tiny smirk stretches one corner of his lips upwards.

     “You are such a…!” Hinata begins, but he can’t find the right word to express his anger. He huffs in frustration and turns around to hide the blush that’s forming on his cheeks.

     Hinata’s eyes land on the rice he dropped on the floor earlier, and he crouches down to pick it up. A few moments later, and much to his surprise, he feels Kageyama crouch down next to him. He stares disbelievingly at the raven when he begins to pick up the rice as well.

     “Listen,” Kageyama says all of sudden, and his voice startles Hinata a little. “When it comes to cooking, fucking up is important.”

     Hinata lets his confusion come out as a _“Huh?”_ , and a light blush spreads across Kageyama’s cheeks at his blunt reaction. He stands up all of sudden, still holding some rice in his hands.

     “I mean, if you don’t fuck up every once in a while, then you can’t learn, can you?” Kageyama elaborates. He refuses to look at him, instead focusing on the scorched curtains. Hinata can still see the red on his cheeks, and, for some reason, he finds it kind of cute. “That’s what I was trying to say.”

     “Huh…” Hinata stands up as well, with his eyes fixed on Kageyama’s flushed cheeks. The taller man reluctantly looks down to meet his gaze, and Hinata gives him a tiny smile. “I guess you’re right!”

     “Of-of course I’m right!” Kageyama stammers. He drops the rice he’s holding into Hinata’s hands, and then walks over to the sink to wash his hands. Staring at his back, Hinata wonders if Kageyama’s still blushing, and, somehow, he kinda wishes he is.

~•~

     “Done!”

     Hinata places the last onigiri on the plate, and steps back to admire his work. His onigiri still looks a little pathetic next to Kageyama’s flawless ones, but he feels rather proud of them.

     “I can’t believe you actually cooked something that looks decent,” Kageyama observes, staring at the rice balls with something that looks like mild surprise.

     “Of course I did!” Hinata exclaims, offended. “I’m not _that_ useless. I can cook omelets, too!”

     “So, omelets and onigiri. You’re a true Top Chef,” Kageyama deadpans, keeping a blank face, but he actually smirks a little when Hinata sticks his tongue out at him.

     “Man, I’m so hungry,” Hinata says. He reaches out and grabs an onigiri to take a small bite out of it. He chews thoughtfully for a moment, and then cracks a satisfied smile. “It tastes good!”

     “It’s probably one of mine.”

     “Don’t be dumb, they taste the same way!”

     Kageyama grabs one of Hinata’s slightly-less-pretty rice balls and takes a bite out of it. After a few moments of silent chewing, he shrugs, and swallows before speaking.

     “Tastes good enough.”

     They eat in silence, except for Hinata’s tiny sounds of appreciation, and Kageyama’s thoughtful _“Should’ve cooked it a little bit longer,”_ when he gets to the filling part.

     Just as Hinata is reaching out to grab a second onigiri, Kageyama turns around and heads for the door.

     “You’re leaving?” Hinata asks, surprised.

     “Why would I stay?” Kageyama retorts, looking at him from over his shoulder.

     “To eat?” Hinata says, raising his eyebrows at the obviousness of the answer.

     “Why would I stay to eat?”

     “You were already eating!”

     “I was just doing a quality control.”

     “If you’re not gonna stay,” Hinata says, rolling his eyes at Kageyama’s stubbornness. He grabs a clean dish from the cupboard (the one that’s underneath the counter, because neither he nor Yachi can reach the top ones), and then opens a drawer to retrieve a roll of plastic film. “At least take some of these home.”

     Kageyama silently watches as Hinata places some of the rice balls on the clean dish, and then covers them with the plastic. The smaller boy walks over to him, and hands him the plate with a smile, but Kageyama doesn’t take it.

     “Why do you want me to take them home?” he asks, and Hinata burrows his brow at his words.

     “Because you wouldn’t let me pay you, and I want to give something back to you!”

     “My job pays good enough. Just knowing that I won’t have to put out any more fires is enough payment,” Kageyama says, and Hinata groans, embarrassed at the memories of his nearly burnt down kitchen. “Besides, you’re the one who buys the ingredients.”

     “But you brought the salmon!”

     “It was about to go bad, and I wasn’t going to eat it anyway.”

     “Ugh, you’re so stubborn!” Hinata whines, and then pushes the plate into Kageyama’s chest. “Just take the goddamned onigiri, will you?”

     “You’re the stubborn one!” Kageyama pushes the plate away, earning a hurt look from Hinata. “I told you I don’t need them.”

     “Come on, Kageyama!”

     “Stop, you’re hitting me with the plate, dumbass!”

     “Please!”

     Kageyama stops moving at the loud sound of Hinata’s voice. He stares down at his brown eyes, stopping for a moment to look at the creases that appear on his forehead from the way he’s frowning. Just one look into Hinata’s intense eyes, and he can know that the redhead won’t back down.

     “Fine,” he groans, snatching the plate from Hinata’s hands. “I’ll take them home.”

     Despite’s Kageyama’s brusqueness, Hinata lets a bright smile adorn his face.

     “Great!”

     Kageyama rolls his eyes and heads for the door. Once he opens the front door and is about to leave, the sound of Hinata’s voice makes him stop dead in his tracks.

     “You should stay next time!”

     Kageyama turns to look at him, and finds Hinata standing with his hands on his hips, and grinning widely at him. There’s something new shining inside his eyes; Kageyama can’t really explain it, but it looks a lot like challenge. And he’s never been one to reject a challenge before.

     “Only when you cook something good enough to make me wanna stay,” he says, and he actually lets himself throw a smirk at Hinata, before walking out of the apartment, closing the door behind him.

     He’s only walked a couple steps down the hall, when Hinata’s words reach his ears, screamed from behind the closed door.

     _“Just you wait, Kageyama! I’ll definitely will”_

Kageyama stops for a moment, and then resumes his walking, shaking his head. Still, there it is, the tiniest of smiles adorning his lips.

     “What a dumbass.”

~•~

     Hinata is just about to return to the kitchen to keep eating, when the front door is opened again. This time, Yachi walks in, looking at something behind her back.

     “Ok, I just saw a guy walk out of our apartment, and,” she says, not even bothering with greetings. She pauses mid-sentence to stare at Hinata with wide eyes before continuing. “Please tell me he’s the hot neighbor who’s teaching you how to cook.”

     “He is the _neighbor_ that’s teaching me how to cook, yes,” Hinata says, still refusing to refer to Kageyama as ‘the hot neighbor’.

     “Then please tell me you made out with him at least a couple times, Shou, because _hot damn,_ ” Yachi says, slowly shaking her head in disbelief.

     “I did not make out with him!” Hinata exclaims, flustered, and as much as he tries to hide it, Yachi can notice that he’s blushing. He quickly regains his composure, gesturing towards the kitchen behind him. “But we made onigiri.”

     “Onigiri? I want some!” Yachi exclaims, and then disappears into the kitchen in a blur of short limbs and blonde hair.

     Hinata waits a couple minutes, before Yachi’s voice floats towards him, along with a moan of appreciation.

     “Ah, salted salmon is my favorite! This is really good, Shouyou!”

     Just as the beginning of a proud _“thank you”_ is forming on Hinata’s lips, Yachi’s head pops up from behind the doorway of the kitchen.

     “You should definitely marry the hot neighbor.”

     “I-You-No-!” Hinata stammers, jumping back in surprise at Yachi’s sudden reappearance. He stomps on the ground and takes a deep breath, laboriously turning his thoughts into words. “Stop calling him that!”

~•~

     “That’s not how you do it, you idiot!”

     “Huh!? What am I doing wrong now!?”

     “I told you to pour the water _slowly_ , and never stop mixing!The flour will get clots if you keep doing it like that!”

     “It’s not my fault, it’s hard to pour and mix at the same time!”

     “It’s not hard at all, you dumbass!”

     “Ok, that’s it, I give up!”

     “You were the one who asked me teach you how to make meat buns!”

     “Yeah, but I never imagined it would be this hard!”

     “It is _not_ hard, you useless little…!”

     Hinata sets the water glass aside with a little more force than necessary, and the sound it makes when it hits the counter cuts Kageyama’s sentence short. Hinata sighs heavily and lets the wooden spoon he’s holding fall into the half-mixed mixture of flour and water that rests in the bowl in front of him.

     “It may not be hard for you,” he mumbles, crossing his arms over his chest in a sulking gesture. “But it is for me. I wouldn’t be asking you to help me if it wasn’t.”

     Kageyama’s angry expression softens at Hinata’s words, and he heaves a tiresome sigh.

     “You’re right-handed, aren’t you?” he asks, and Hinata silently nods.

     Kageyama moves to stand behind the smaller boy. Hinata looks up at him with silent questioning in his eyes, but doesn’t say a word.

     “Try grabbing the spoon with your right hand, and pour the water with the left one.”

     Hinata does as he’s told, grabbing the tools and positioning himself in front of the bowl. Just as he is about to start pouring the water into it, he feels Kageyama’s hands falling over his own, his long fingers wrapping around his shorter ones.

     Somewhere in his chest, his heart seems to have forgotten how to beat.

     Slowly, Kageyama starts to guide his movements with his own hands, much like he had done the other day with the onigiri. But this time, he’s much closer, so much that his chest is almost pressed against Hinata’s back. A sweet, yet masculine smell drifts over to him, and Hinata wonders if it’s his shampoo, or his cologne, or just Kageyama’s own, particular smell. Whatever it is, it’s good.

     “Are you paying attention?”

     Kageyama’s accusing voice snaps Hinata out of his thoughts, but the vibrations of it resounding along his spine threaten to send him into another round of Silent Contemplation of Kageyama Tobio’s Unexpectedly Attractive Characteristics.

     “Yes!” Hinata squeaks, mentally cursing himself for spacing away at such an inconvenient moment.

     _“It’s all Yachi’s fault,”_ he thinks, returning his attention to the task at hand. _“It’s her fault for calling him ‘the hot neighbor’_ … _”_

     He immediately focuses on doing what Kageyama is showing him. The taller man carefully guides his hands to help him pour the water slowly, and mix everything together at the same time. Eventually, Hinata finally gets how to do it, and his movements become almost automatic. But Kageyama still keeps his hands over his. Just in case.

     “See? It’s not that hard.”

     Hinata nods absently, focused on pouring and mixing, and the tips of his orange locks tickle Kageyama’s nose a little.

     They are so concentrated in silently preparing the dough, that they don’t even hear the front door being opened, or the tiny footsteps walking towards the kitchen.

     But the do hear the sweet, over-excited voice that comes from the doorstep.

     “Shouyou, you won’t _believe_ who I ran into at the-!”

     It’s not until they hear the girl cutting herself off, and turn around to look at her shocked face, eyes wide and mouth agape, that Hinata and Kageyama notice just how weird of a position they’re in.

     Without another word, Yachi turns around and walks out of the kitchen.

     “Yachi, wait!” Hinata runs after her, ducking his head under Kageyama’s arm to follow her into the living room. But it’s already too late, and by the time he steps out of the kitchen, Yachi has already left the apartment.

     “Is that your girlfriend?” Kageyama asks, exiting the kitchen to stand behind him.

     “No! Why would you think that?” Hinata exclaims, turning around to give him a horrified look.

     “She looked upset,” Kageyama says with a shrug.

     “She’s my roommate. And I can assure you, she was _not_ upset.”

     Kageyama watches, confused, as Hinata stomps back into the kitchen with a deep frown on his face. Maybe he wouldn’t be so confused if he had, just like Hinata did, seen the tiny, victorious smirk on Yachi’s face when she closed the door behind herself.

~•~

     With a tired sigh, Kageyama places a paper bag on the counter (the paper bag carrying the meat buns that Hinata stubbornly forced him to take home). He is about to go get changed into his work clothes to go cover the afternoon shift at the restaurant, when his eyes fall on the bag, and he notices a bunch of numbers scribbled on it with black sharpie.

     He picks it up and stares at the numbers, and it takes him a moment to understand that what he’s looking at is actually a phone number. Scowling, Kageyama takes out his cellphone from his pocket, and punches the number in before pressing it to his ear.

     The line rings a couple times, and then the other person picks up.

     “Hello?”

     “Why the hell did you write your phone number on the bag, you dumbass?”

     “Why not? I thought you should have it!” Hinata says. Kageyama can hear the sound of dishes being washed on his side of the line.

     “Why would I want it? I live upstairs from you!”

     “Just in case we need to cancel a class or something. Don’t be such a grump, Kageyama!” Kageyama can almost hear him smiling. It makes him want to go downstairs, and punch him in the face. “And now that you called me, I got _your_ number!”

     Kageyama groans and rubs his eyes with his free hand.

     “Don’t you dare call me.”

     “Don’t worry! I doubt I’ll ever feel like talking to you unless it’s absolutely ne-”

     Kageyama hangs up on the middle of Hinata’s sentence. He leaves his phone on the counter next to the meat buns, and walks to his bedroom wearing the most annoyed face he can muster, which is only slightly different than his default expression.

~•~

     Hinata dries his hands on his apron, and sets his phone on the counter. He can’t wipe the smile off his lips at the mental image of Kageyama’s face once he realized he had accidentally given his phone number to him.

     Just when he’s about to start washing the dishes again, the high, cheery notes of his ringtone float over to him. Hinata picks up without even checking who the caller is.

     “What is it, Kageyama-kun?” he asks in a teasing tone, holding the phone between his shoulder and his cheek.

     _“Oh, who is Kageyama-kun?”_

     Hinata almost drops his phone into the sink.

     “Mom!?”

     _“Hi, hi, Shou-chan!”_ his mother’s overly-cheery voice greets him from the other side of the line.

     “W-what is it, mom?” Hinata asks, trying to sound as normal as possible. But in his mind, he is already cursing his best friend’s entire existence. “You never call unless it’s something important.”

     _“Oh, it_ is _important!”_ Hinata’s mom’s voice turns worried all of sudden. _“Hitoka-chan called me.”_

“Oh, she did?” Hinata says with a small, forced laugh. “And what exactly did she tell you?”

~•~

     Kageyama is in the middle of pulling his t-shirt on, when he hears a loud yell coming from downstairs.

    _“I AM NOT GETTING MARRIED, MOM!”_

     Kageyama snorts.

     _“Definitely_ not, _with those cooking skills of yours,”_ he thinks.

~•~

     Hinata has just hung up, and thrown his phone on the counter with a low groan, when he hears the front door opening. As soon as Yachi walks into the kitchen with a gigantic, innocent-looking smile on her face, Hinata throws his apron at her, hitting her square on the face.

     “Hey!” Yachi exclaims, barely catching the flowery fabric in her hands. She takes a step back when Hinata points his index finger at her, with his cheeks shining just about as brightly as his hair.

     “You are _not_ getting any meat buns, you filthy traitor!”

     Hinata is pretty sure that the entire building could hear Yachi’s loud whine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Hoped you enjoyed this chapter! I want to thank you all for all your comments and kudos, and thanks again to my lovely beta, Miss_Macabre_Grey, for being the best butt ever <3
> 
> Any form of feedback his highly appreciated! You can also go talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr.


	3. Chapter 3

     “Good morning,” Kageyama calls out as soon as he walks into the restaurant. The cheery sound of the doorbell echoes his greeting when he closes the door behind him. He looks around for a familiar face he hasn’t spotted yet. It doesn’t take long to find it.

     “Good morning, Kageyama!” A smiling face appears from behind the counter, where its owner is currently crouched down.The man stands up, and wipes his hands on his apron before speaking up again. “Early as ever, huh?”

     “Not as early as you, Sugawara-san.”

     “Of course I’m always early. I’m the floor manager!” Suga states with another smile, and Kageyama doesn’t miss the proud note of his voice. He cracks a tiny smile on the manager’s direction, and then begins to walk towards the resting room.

     He’s just finished changing into his uniform, when he hears the front door being opened, and the faint sound of familiar voices. Someone else walks into the resting room a couple minutes later, smirking at the sight of Kageyama’s unwelcoming scowl.

     “Morning, King.”

     “Stop calling me that, you little…” Kageyama spits through gritted teeth, and slams his locker shut. It’s way too early to be dealing with Tsukishima’s smug face.

     “Does it bother you?” Tsukishima’s voice turns even more teasing, and Kageyama has to make a gigantic effort not to punch him in the face. “You’re the King of the kitchen, after all.”

     “Well, you’re the King of Shitty Waiters, then,” Kageyama says, trying his best not to sound as angry as he really is. “How many customer complaints have you gotten this week?”

     “Almost as many as you got from your co-workers.” Tsukishima delivers his comeback with the same unmoving little smirk, completely unfazed by Kageyama’s comment. The corners of his lips turn even further upwards into a full-on grin before he speaks up again. “Or should I say, your peasants?”

     “Stop fighting or I’ll send you both home!” Suga calls out from the front. Kageyama and Tsukishima exchange glares, before pointedly looking away from each other.

     As always, Kageyama is the first one to enter the kitchen. He looks around the wide room, full of shiny appliances, with every last utensil perfectly set in place. He lets a tiny smile play on his lips, before finally getting to work.

     He’s in the middle of turning on the ovens, and setting everything in place, when the rest of the cooks begin to pour in. Kageyama responds to their respectful greetings with short nods, without tearing his eyes off of the knives he’s arranging in place.

     “Wow, Kageyama’s cold as always today...”

     “He probably got into a fight with Tsukishima again.”

     Kageyama grits his teeth when he hears them behind his back. He’s about to turn around and let the two of them hear a piece of his mind, but then Suga’s voice drifts into the kitchen from the doorway, where he’s standing with his hands on his hips.

     “Kunimi, Kindaichi!” he says with a stern voice, and both of them turn around to face him, surprised. “If you have time to be standing there talking, you surely have time to help the sous chef out, don’t you think?”

     “Yes, Suga-san,” both Kunimi and Kindaichi mutter, looking a lot like a couple of kids who just got scolded by their mom. Kindaichi hurries to his station like the rest of the cooks, and Kunimi follows him at a much more disinterested pace.

     Kageyama nods his head in Suga’s direction, silently thanking him, and Suga winks at him before walking back to the front.

     Kageyama returns to the task at hand, heaving a sigh. He is quite aware that he is disliked by the rest of the cooks. He’s not dumb enough not to notice the fearful looks he gets from his younger subordinates every time he barks out an order, or the resentful scoffs the older ones let out when they hear his instructions.

     _“They’re just jealous,”_ Suga had told him one day, when they stayed behind after closing hours, cleaning up the resulting mess of a sauce pot that had been thrown in Kageyama’s direction after a particularly heated argument with the rôtisseur. _“Not everyone gets to become a sous chef right after graduating high school, you know?”_

Kageyama hadn’t said anything at the time. He just smiled apologetically when Suga placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and told him that geniuses him were bound to be resented by the less talented.

     _“It’s just the way it is. Don’t let it get to you, Kageyama!”_

     He hadn’t said anything at the time, because he knew Suga was kind enough not to mention the real motive behind his subordinate’s resentment, the reason behind his much hated nickname, so full of spite and poison: the King of the Kitchen.

     The real reason was his attitude. For everyone else, Kageyama was a tyrannical, cruel King, always yelling, always spitting orders out, always full of criticism and angry glares. It was to be expected of a genius like him. Being perfect was easy, it was natural for him; therefore, anything less than absolute perfection was easily despised, and mediocrity was not forgiven.

     But wasn’t that obvious? He was the sous chef for a reason, and his job was simple: keeping the kitchen flawlessly organized, and functioning perfectly.

     So, mediocrity was not forgiven. Not in his kitchen.

     “Ah, nothing like the sound of subordinates working in the morning!”

     Ok, maybe it was not _his_ kitchen.

     Everyone turns to look at the man standing in the doorway, dressed in his white uniform, and wearing a wide grin on his face. Behind him stands a smaller man, also dressed in his uniform.

     “Good morning, Ukai-san, Takeda-san,” Kageyama greets the newcomers with a bow. The rest of the cooks imitate his gesture, greeting the chef de cuisine and the sauté chef with the utmost respect.

     “Morning!” Ukai says, strutting into the kitchen with the authority only a head chef like him could manage.

     “Good morning!” Takeda greets everyone as well, smiling sweetly at the cooks, before turning to Kageyama. “Good morning, Kageyama-kun. I’m sorry we’re late!”

     “You’re not late at all,” Kageyama reassures him with a soft shake of his head. “The rest has just arrived as well. We’ve just started to set everything in place.”

     “Okay, everybody!” Ukai’s voice booms around the kitchen, earning everyone’s attention. "Suga is about to open the front door, so everything better be ready. Let’s work hard today as well!"

     “Yes, chef!” everyone answers in unison, before hurrying to their respective stations.

~•~

     “What kind of place do you work at?”

     At the sound of Hinata’s voice, Kageyama stops stirring the sauce and turns to look at him. He finds big brown eyes already staring at him, and he finds out that Hinata’s face is closer than he thought. Which is to be expected, seeing as they are both working at the same stove. Really, there’s no reason to be surprised at all-

     “Kageyama?”

     Hinata’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts again, and Kageyama’s cheeks heat up a little when he notices that he’s been staring at Hinata for at least fifteen seconds now. Kageyama coughs softly and returns his gaze back to the sauce, stirring it carefully.

     “A restaurant.”

     “Of course you work at a restaurant, you idiot!” Hinata exclaims, and Kageyama is ready to insult him back before he realizes that _yes, of course you work at a restaurant, you idiot._ “I meant what kind of restaurant.”

     “Why do you wanna know?”

     “I’m just curious.”

     “A normal one, I guess,” Kageyama says with a shrug.

     “Wow, Kageyama, you’re always so eloquent,” Hinata deadpans, looking at him with his eyebrows raised.

     “Shut up and watch the spaghettis, dumbass!” Kageyama exclaims, hating himself a little for blushing again. “If you burn them again I will never come back!”

     Hinata hurries to stir the spaghettis that are currently boiling inside their pot. He grabs a fork and takes one out, carefully blowing on it. Then, he grabs it between his fingers and unceremoniously throws it upwards, under Kageyama’s surprised gaze. The thin string of pasta clings to the ceiling for a millisecond before it falls back down, landing square on Hinata’s face.

     Hinata doesn’t move, still looking up, with a spaghetti decorating his face, until Kageyama angrily slaps the back of his head. Hinata squeaks, and then scrambles to grab the pasta in his hands before it falls to the ground.

     “What the hell are you doing, you idiot!?” Kageyama yells at him.

     “I saw it on TV! If the pasta sticks to the ceiling, then it’s done!” Hinata explains, rubbing the back of his head. “Italian people do it.”

     “No they don’t, give me that!” Kageyama snatches the tortured spaghetti from Hinata’s hands and takes a bite out of it. He chews thoughtfully for a moment, and then turns to look at him. “Turn off the stove and leave them in the pot for a while,” he orders, and Hinata hurries to do as he says. “They’ll be al dente that way.”

     “What’s ‘al dente’?”

     “When you cook something, but it’s still firm.”

     “So, raw?”

     “No, you dumbass, _firm_.”

     Hinata hums thoughtfully, and Kageyama rolls his eyes. He takes the sauce out of the fire and turns out the stove as well, still stirring it slowly.

     “Do you work at a Japanese restaurant? Or maybe Italian, or French?” Hinata asks after a while, earning a tiresome groan from Kageyama.

     “Why do you want to know?”

     “I told you, I’m just curious! I don’t know anything about you…”

     Kageyama sighs and looks at Hinata with firm eyes. Hinata holds his gaze without wavering, and, after a few moments, Kageyama sighs again.

     “It’s more like a family restaurant,” he finally says. “But fancier.”

     “Oh, so it’s like a date restaurant!”

     “What the hell is a ‘date restaurant’?” Kageyama asks with a scowl.

     “You know, one of those restaurants where people go on dates! They’re fancy, but not too much, so they’re perfect for dates!”

     “It’s not a ‘date restaurant’,” Kageyama says, using air quotations. “It’s just a normal restaurant.”

     “Is it expensive?”

     “Not really. Stop asking dumb things and put the colander in the sink.”

     Hinata rummages around the cabinets until he finds the colander. He hurries to place it inside the sink, and then hops up to sit on the counter next to it. Kageyama uses a dishtowel to grab the pot with the spaghettis, and then throws its contents into the colander. Both of them close their eyes when a wave of steam hits them in the face.

     “I thought you’d work at one of those super fancy places with tiny dishes that cost like two hundred dollars,” Hinata says one the steam has dissipated. “Nobel cuisine, was it?”

     “Nouvelle cuisine, dumbass,” Kageyama corrects him, shaking the colander to get rid of any remnants of water. “And I don’t think they’d want me at those places.”

     “Why not?”

     “I don’t know how to cook things like that.”

     “They didn’t teach you at cooking school?”

     “I didn’t go to cooking school.”

     “You didn’t!?” Hinata exclaims, surprised. He jumps off the counter and approaches Kageyama, who takes a step back with a deep scowl on his face. “Really!?”

     “I’m telling you I didn’t!” Kageyama says with annoyance, pushing Hinata away from him.

     “Then how are you so good at cooking?” Hinata asks, eyes still wide with surprise.

     “I’m just good.” Kageyama places his hands on his hips with a stern look, before speaking up again. “Stop blabbering and put the spaghettis in a bowl.”

     While Hinata complies, Kageyama takes out salt, pepper and olive oil from a cabinet. He stares at the olive oil for a moment, knowing that it would never be in Hinata’s kitchen if he hadn’t brought it. After all, Hinata barely even had cup ramen and cereal in his pantry until Kageyama started to teach him. The memory almost makes a shiver run down Kageyama’s spine.

     “How can you live without olive oil?” he mutters under his breath. He hears Hinata snicker behind him, and he whips his head around to shoot him a questioning look.

     “You cooking nerd!” Hinata says, and then bursts out laughing at the offended look Kageyama gives him.

     “Shut up and condiment the pasta!” Kageyama orders, shoving the salt and pepper into his chest.

     That manages to wipe the smile off of Hinata’s face.

     “Eh!? But what if I ruin it!?”

     “Shut up and do as I say!”

     “Then don’t get mad if I fuck up!”

     Hinata has to force himself not to say _“I told you so,”_ when, not even thirty seconds later, Kageyama’s loud _“You idiot, that’s too much pepper!”_ resonates across the apartment.

~•~

     “Shouyou~!”

     Yachi lets out a high-pitched squeal of appreciation, and scrunches up her face with delight. She kicks her legs upwards from where she’s sitting on the couch, chewing eagerly, and swallows before she turns to look at Hinata with bright eyes.

     “This is delicious!”

     “I know, right?” Hinata says with a proud smile.

     “Mm-hm!” Yachi nods her head, and then returns her attention to her plate, rolling more pasta around her fork to put it inside her mouth. She squeals and kicks again, completely delighted. “It’s the best thing you’ve cooked so far!”

     “It’s pasta Bolognese. I made it all by myself!” Hinata says proudly. Yachi raises her eyebrows, and Hinata scratches the back of his head. “Almost…”

     “Really?” Yachi asks, still looking dubious, and Hinata frowns at her, offended.

     “Really! Kageyama only cut the onion and stirred the sauce!”

     “And did he kiss you afterwards?” Yachi teases him, nudging him with her elbow.

     “He did not!” Hinata pushes her away, annoyed.

     “Dang it! Should I buy you a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron, then?”

     “The one you got me is already embarrassing enough, thank you very much!” Hinata huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

     “Aw, but it looks so cute on you!” Yachi says, setting her plate on the coffee table before leaning her head on his shoulder.

     Hinata finally cracks a smile, and moves to rest his cheek on her hair. They are silent for a while, until Yachi speaks up again.

     “Remember when I walked in on you and Hot Neighbor being all gay and touchy-feely in the kitchen last week?”

     “Yachi, I swear to god-!” Hinata starts, shoving her away again.

     “No, no, listen!” Yachi hurries to say, turning around on the couch to fully face Hinata. “I was gonna tell you something important, but then I forgot!”

     “You obviously forgot after you so _charmingly_ called my mother to-”

     “Forget that and hear me out!” Yachi cuts him off again, earning a glare from her friend. Ignoring Hinata’s annoyance, Yachi cracks an excited smile, leaning in slightly to be closer to him. “You wouldn’t _guess_ who I ran into at the train station!”

     “Who?” Hinata asks, turning on the couch as well, in order to face Yachi, and then leans in to bring their faces closer together with obvious curiosity. Her words had piqued his interest, despite his previous resentment.

     “Kiyoko-san!” Yachi exclaims, grabbing her own cheeks with barely contained thrill.

     “Kiyoko-san?”

     “Yes!”

     “Kiyoko-san, as in, Shimizu Kiyoko?”

     “Yes!”

     “Shimizu Kiyoko, as in your unresolved high school crush?”

     _“Yes!”_

     Both Hinata and Yachi stare silently at each other for a few seconds, before they begin to squeal and flail loudly and incoherently. Hinata grabs Yachi by the shoulders and presses their foreheads together with the widest of smiles.

     “Yachiiiii!”

     “But that’s not even the best part!” Yachi exclaims over the shrill sound of Hinata’s squeals. She’s practically bouncing on the couch right now, with her face flushed from uncontainable excitement. “She asked me out! _On a date!_ ”

     Hinata squeals and flails again, and Yachi immediately joins him, throwing herself into his open arms and knocking him back into the couch.

     “Yachi, that’s amazing!” Hinata exclaims, holding her tight. After years of hearing about the girl’s undying love for their dark-haired senpai, Hinata is almost as happy as she is.

     “I knoooow!” Yachi squeals, covering her face with her hands and kicking her legs like a small child. She places her hands on Hinata’s chest and pushes herself up. “I can’t believe it!”

     Just as Hinata is going to hug her again, the sound of someone knocking loudly on the door startles them both. They exchange confused looks, before the sound reaches them again, this time accompanied by a familiar voice.

     “ _Hinata! Hinata, open the door!_ ”

     “Kageyama!?” Hinata exclaims, sitting up at such a speed, that he knocks Yachi off the couch. She hits the floor with a low thump, and a muffled shriek. But Hinata doesn’t seem to notice, because he’s jumping off the couch and running to the door to swing it open.

     “Hinata!” Kageyama exclaims as soon as the door is opened, grabbing him roughly by the shoulders. “Is everything okay? Is your kitchen burning again?”

     Hinata takes a moment to look at Kageyama, noticing his wide eyes and agitated breathing, before letting out a single, utterly confused “ _What?_ ”

     “Your kitchen, dumbass! Did you burn it again?” Kageyama asks with increased urgency, shaking him slightly.

     “No, why the hell would you think that!?” Hinata exclaims, and Kageyama’s expression drops into a confused frown that mirrors Hinata’s almost perfectly.

     “I heard screaming and I thought…” he mumbles, dropping his arms at his sides.

     While they stare at each other with identical frowns of confusion, Yachi appears behind Hinata, rubbing her head with a small pout.

     “Shou, what the heck!” she whines, looking down at her feet while padding towards her friend. “You threw me off of the couch, you big doofus!”

     She finally looks up, and her eyes widen when she notices Kageyama standing in the doorway, staring at her with evident abashment.

     “Oh, hello,” Yachi says, immediately perking up. “You’re the ho- _Ack!_ ” she cuts herself off when Hinata steps on her right foot, and then hurries to correct herself when she notices Kageyama’s frown deepen. “You’re Kageyama-san!”

     “Ah, yes!” Kageyama nods quickly, and his frown disappears into something that Hinata thinks must be an attempt at a smile. A very creepy smile.

     “Kageyama, this is Yachi Hitoka, my roommate, and personal karma,” Hinata says, pointing at Yachi. He ignores his friend’s offended _“Hey!”_ , and then points to Kageyama. “Yachi, this is Kageyama Tobio, our upstairs neighbor and my cooking teacher.”

     “Nice to meet you, Kageyama-san!” Yachi says with a smile. “So, what brings you here?”

     “I, um… I thought…” Kageyama tries to explain, and a light blush spreads across his cheeks.

     “He thought I had burned the kitchen down again,” Hinata comes to his rescue, and then elaborates when Yachi raises her eyebrows in silent questioning. “Because we were screaming.”

     Yachi looks back and forth between them for a few seconds, before she bursts out laughing loudly, clutching to her stomach and doubling over. It doesn’t take long for Hinata to join her, and their laughter fills the apartment with joy.

     They’re loud enough for Hinata to almost miss the small chuckle that escapes Kageyama’s lips. Almost.

     “Kageyama!” Hinata exclaims all of sudden, turning to look at him. Yachi stops laughing, looking just as surprised by Hinata’s sudden seriousness as Kageyama does. “Did you just _laugh?_ ”

     Kageyama splutters and stammers for a moment. He frowns deeply, and stomps one foot on the ground with an evident blush on his cheeks.

     “Shut up, idiot, I did not!” he exclaims. “Now I’m late for work because of you!”

     He turns to leave, and then turns around again to bow his head in Yachi’s direction.

     “It was nice meeting you, Yachi-san.”

     “Same here,” she says, trying to hide her amusement at Kageyama’s behavior.

     Kageyama nods once, and then glares at Hinata before leaving, closing the door behind him.

     “He’s… charming,” Yachi says once the sound of the closing door stops echoing around them.

     “He’s about as charming as a rotten onion,” Hinata states, and Yachi laughs.

     “But he was so worried about you!” she defends, entwining her fingers under her chin. She sighs dramatically and bats her eyelashes. “How romantic!”

     Hinata glares at her, unamused, and Yachi smiles teasingly.

     “You sure you don’t want that ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron, Shouyou?”

     “You know, I should call Shimizu-san and tell her the truth about you,” Hinata says nonchalantly.

     “The truth about me?”

     “That despite your cute and innocent appearance, you are actually one of Satan’s spawns.”

     Yachi stares at him with a blank expression for a few seconds, and then narrows her eyes and purses her lips.

     “Now I won’t buy you that apron.”

     “I don’t want the stupid apron!”

~•~

     And yet, the apron is there the next morning, perfectly folded on top of Hinata’s bed, with its bright magenta fabric shining awfully against the bedsheets, and black, big letters reading “Kiss the Cook”. And of course, _of course_ there is a tiny drawing of a kiss mark where the tittle of the letter “i” should be. Of course.

     If Hinata doesn’t burn that thing as soon as he sees it, it’s only because burning yet another apron seems like a legitimate reason for Kageyama to murder him.

~•~

     “Did you get everything I asked for?” Kageyama asks after he finishes tying his apron behind his back.

     “Yup!” Hinata chirps with a short nod. After tying his own, flowery apron around his waist, he runs to the fridge and tears a piece of paper from the door. He quickly goes over the list, eyes moving rapidly over Kageyama’s neat scribbles. “Tuna, eggs, panko, onion, and all those weird spice things I can’t even pronounce,” he finishes with a wide smile.

     Kageyama takes a moment to wonder how someone can look so proud of themselves while saying something so idiotic.

     “So, what are we making with this?” Hinata asks, placing the bag with the ingredients he bought earlier on top of the counter. “Pasta again?”

     “No, something easier, so you can do it without me,” Kageyama explains, grabbing the list from Hinata’s hand to check that every ingredient is there.

     “Tuna salad with panko?” Hinata asks with a grimace when Kageyama finishes checking the bag.

     “No, you dumbass, that sounds disgusting!” Kageyama hits Hinata on the forehead with the crumpled grocery list, and then rolls his eyes. “We’re making tuna croquets.”

     “Wah, that sounds good!” Hinata exclaims, looking at Kageyama with a big smile and eyes so wide that they look like they’re sparkling.

     “You seem very excited today,” Kageyama observes, crossing his arms over his chest.

     “Well, Yachi _really_ liked the pasta we made the last time, so I guess I’m getting better at this!” Hinata explains while taking out the ingredients from their bag.

     “At least you don’t burn things anymore.”

     “Do you _have_ to be such an asshole all the time?”

     Hinata angrily glares at the raven, but his anger quickly dissipates when he notices the tiny smile on Kageyama’s lips.

~•~

     “Can I cut the onion this time?”

     At the sound of Hinata’s tentative question, Kageyama raises his gaze from the cutting board and the knife he’s holding, and looks at him with his brows furrowed. There’s an undisputable “no” written all over his face.

     “Please?” Hinata’s voice acquires some sort of begging quality, and Kageyama’s frown deepens.

     “You suck at cutting onions.”

     “That’s why I wanna do it this time! I wanna learn how to do it.”

     They exchange unmoving looks for a while, until Kageyama heaves a defeated sigh.

     “Fine,” he growls, setting the knife aside and stepping away.

     With barely contained excitement, and some obvious nervousness, Hinata approaches the cutting board and grabs the knife with his right hand. Kageyama hands him a peeled onion, and Hinata stares at it for a moment before setting it on the board to carefully cut it in half.

     As soon as the blade hits the cutting board, effectively slicing the onion in two, Hinata looks up at Kageyama, as if searching for permission to keep going. Kageyama gives a sharp nod, and Hinata returns to the task at hand, wearing a determined expression on his face.

     “Don’t lift the knife.”

     Kageyama’s voice reaches Hinata’s ears after a while, and he stops cutting to look up at him. Without saying anything, Kageyama grabs the knife from Hinata’s hand, and begins to slice the onion with incredible ease.

     “The tip of the blade should never leave the board,” he explains while Hinata follows his every movement with the utmost attention. “You place one hand on top of the blade, like this, so you can control it better, and then you only have to move your right hand.”

     “I get it.”

     Hinata grabs the knife back and starts to cut the onion again. A few seconds later, he feels Kageyama’s hands grabbing his own to stop his movements, and reposition them the correct way.

     “Like this,” he explains, and then slowly begins to guide Hinata’s movements with his own hands.

     It’s become normal for Kageyama to do this, to stand behind Hinata and grab his hands to show him how to do things. It’s only because it’s easier that way, that’s it. Hinata knows that.

     But that doesn’t stop his heart from trashing wildly inside his ribcage every time he feels Kageyama’s chest and abdomen press against his back, or the soft brush of his calloused fingertips over the back of his hands. And when the sweet scent of Kageyama’s hair drifts over to him, Hinata begins to seriously worry that the other boy will hear his desperate heartbeats, that he will feel them against his chest where he’s pressing it against Hinata’s back.

     It’s entirely annoying and counterproductive, for sure; while Kageyama is trying to show him the best way to do things, Hinata can only focus on trying not to get a stroke. And the worst part is, he doesn’t even know _why_ it happens. It just does.

     “Do you get it now?”

     And the soft caress of Kageyama’s words brushing against the shell of his ear does absolutely _nothing_ to help.

     Hinata tries to speak, but soon enough he finds out that the words have died inside his throat. So he just nods his head as quickly as he can, and tries to focus back on slicing the onions.

     Kageyama steps back and away from him, leaving a tingling sensation on every inch of Hinata’s skin that he had been touching. Before he resumes his cutting, Hinata takes a moment to wonder why he misses the warmth of Kageyama’s hands on his, when his heart is still caught in the back of his throat.

~•~

     “Done!” Hinata announces, right after taking the last croquet out of the frying pan. He carefully sets it on a plate on top of the others, and then takes a moment to appreciate his work. “That was easy,” he comments.

     “I told you it was. I barely had to do anything,” Kageyama says. He uses a chopstick to poke one of the croquets, and then nods with satisfaction when he sees that it’s well cooked.

     “Are you proud of me, Kageyama-kun?” Hinata asks with a wide grin, and Kageyama looks at him like he just asked him if he would like to get an enema. Hinata snorts at Kageyama’s grimace, and then grabs a croquet between his fingers to take a small bite out of it. “Wah, it tastes good and everything!” he announces after swallowing.

     “Let me see,” Kageyama says, tearing off a piece of the croquet Hinata is holding to pop it inside his mouth. He chews silently for a few seconds, and then nods his approval. “It does.”

     “Thanks for teaching me again today, Kageyama!” Hinata beams at him with such an intensity, that Kageyama has to look away in fear of being blinded.

     “Don’t mention it. I’m going home now,” he says, taking off his apron while walking out of the kitchen.

     His hand is already at the doorknob when he hears Hinata’s voice.

     “Kageyama!”

     Kageyama knows what he’s gonna say next, but he still turns around to face Hinata.

     “Stay?” Hinata offers with a tiny smile.

     Lately, it’s been becoming easier and easier for Hinata to convince him to stay. Kageyama knows that, and he hates it. And yet, as soon as he catches sight of those pleading eyes, he can do nothing but sigh, and take his hand off the doorknob to rejoin Hinata in the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hi! I'm sorry, I know this update is a little late, but Real Life performed a fatality on my free time! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
> 
> In case you were confused by the chef titles, [here's](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef#Titles) an easy explanation about them.
> 
> As always, thanks to my lovely beta, Miss_Macabre_Grey, and thanks to all of you for your comments and kudos <3 <3 <3
> 
> Any form of feedback is always highly appreciated and encouraged! :)


	4. Chapter 4

     “Hinata! Pay attention, goddamn it!”

     Hinata straightens his back and places his arms in front of him in a receiving position, before letting out a squeaky _“Yes, coach!”_

     This is the fifth time his coach has called him out, and practice is not even halfway done. Hinata blushes when he hears his teammates snickering, and tries to focus on receiving the incoming ball as best as he can. He grits his teeth when the volleyball slams against his forearms, and then cracks a tiny smile at the small chorus of _“Nice receive!”_ that echo around him.

     “Oi, Hinata, what’s got you so distracted today?” a low voice reaches him from the side, and Hinata looks up with wide eyes. He catches the teasing smile on Tanaka’s lips before someone calls his name, and he runs forward with a quick _“Yes!”_

     Hinata sighs and runs after Tanaka, standing close to the net in case he needs to block.

     He knows his teammates probably think he’s an idiot for spacing out like that in the middle of practice.He’s done it five times now; he begins to think about the ingredients Kageyama asked him to buy for the next lesson, trying to remember them all. It doesn’t take long before he finds himself drifting off, thinking about other things.

     It starts off with cooking-related things, like ideal cooking times for pasta, or the names of all those weird spices Kageyama loves so much. Then, he begins to wonder if he could try and cook something by himself, only to reach the conclusion that he should ask Kageyama to help him. Kageyama, who has skilled hands and strong arms, and long legs, and a deep voice…

     _“Kageyama would be good at volleyball,”_ Hinata muses while looking down at his shoes. _“He’s got long fingers, and big hands. And he’s strong, too, and tall. Maybe I should ask him to practice with me some day…”_

“Hinata, watch out!”

     But the warning only serves for him to look up, and get a high-speed volleyball right in the face. Hinata falls to the ground with a muffled grunt, and his teammates instantly crowd around him.

     “Hinata, are you okay?” several voices dance around him, but Hinata can’t focus for long enough to find out who they belong to.

     He hears approaching footsteps, and then a rough, frowning face enters his field of vision. Hinata takes a few moments to recognize his coach’s perpetual glare.

     “Are you okay?” the man asks.

     “Yes, sir,” comes Hinata’s hoarse answer.

     “Good. Now go sit on the bench for a moment, and see if you can _get your concentration back, will you?_ ” the coach spits the last words from behind gritted teeth, leaving no room for any answer that isn’t _“Yes, sir.”_

Hinata can’t stop himself from pouting while he watches his teammates play from the bench. He absently dangles his feet, grabbing the bench between his knees, and looking absolutely childish.

     “I want to play…” Hinata mumbles, and his pout deepens.

     He’s already given up on sending the coach pleading looks, after receiving nothing but denying glares in exchange. He quickly glances into the coach’s direction, and then promptly looks away when the man turns to look at him.

     It isn’t long before the shrill sound of a whistle, and the coach’s assistant’s booming voice announce a small break.

     Someone flops down on the bench next to Hinata, letting out a loud sigh.

     “Man, I’m so tired!”

     “Noya-san!” Hinata greets his teammate with an enthusiastic gleam in his eyes. “That receive just now was amazing!”

     “Did you see it!?” Nishinoya seems to forget about his previous exhaustion. He turns to face Hinata, mirroring the excited look on his face.

     “I did, I did! It was sooooo cool!”

     “But not as cool as me!” Tanaka states, sitting down on Hinata’s other side.

     “Shut up, Ryuu, I’m definitely cooler than you!” Nishinoya says, sticking his tongue out at him.

     “But you know what’s not cool?” Tanaka continues, ignoring his friend’s mocking gesture. “Having to sit on the bench during practice.”

     “Tanaka-san!” Hinata whines, turning to look at him with a furious blush on his cheeks.

     “Yeah, not cool,” Nishinoya agrees, shaking his head. “Especially for getting a ball to the face.”

     “Noya-san!” Hinata turns to look at him this time, the red on his cheeks turning darker.

     “What is it, Hinata? Are you in love?” Tanaka asks teasingly, elbowing Hinata on the ribs.

     “T-t-t-t-that’s no it!” Hinata stammers, furiously waving his hands in front of his face.

     Apparently, the angry blush that covers the entirety of Hinata’s face is enough to instigate a little bit of mercy on Tanaka and Nishinoya, who stop their teasing to burst into loud, booming laughter.

     “Break’s over!” the coach announces, in his usual stern tone. “Hinata, get in the court! Don’t make me regret it!”

     “Yes, sir!” Hinata exclaims, jumping out of the bench and into the court in the blink of an eye. He stops for a moment to send an offended glare in Tanaka and Nishinoya’s direction, only to provoke another bout of explosive laughter.

~•~

     _“Listen, I want you to find something that_ you _want to cook. I’m tired of coming up with stuff for you to do.”_

Kageyama’s words resound around Hinata’s head, as he absently flips the pages of his mother’s old cookbook, with his cheek in his hand, and his elbow on the counter.

     “Something I want to cook…” he mumbles, eyeing all the colorful dishes, shining proudly on the book’s worn-out pages. “Too hard, too boring, too hard, too hard, too expensive…”

     Hinata sighs and closes the book. A couple months ago, there would’ve been hundreds of things he would’ve wanted to cook. But right now, none of those things seem appealing anymore.

     _“I guess I’m too used to Kageyama telling me what to do,”_ he muses, and his face scrunches up in disgust at his own thoughts.

     Hinata’s eyes fall on his cell phone, currently resting on the counter next to the book. He picks it up.

     “Maybe I could call him,” he mumbles to himself, unlocking it and searching through his contacts. He stops searching once he finds the contact under the name “Grumpy-ass Cooking Nerd,” and takes a moment to snicker at his own occurrence, before hitting the ‘Call’ button.

~•~

     “Kageyama!”

     Kageyama looks up at the sound of the head chef calling his name, momentarily taking his eyes off the onion he’s caramelizing.

     “Yes, chef?”

     “Go take a break. You haven’t eaten anything since noon,” Ukai orders, walking up to him with his arms crossed.

     “In a moment, chef, let me just finish-”

     “I’ll take care of that, go eat something.”

     “But-”

     “Kageyama,” Ukai interrupts him with a stern voice. “I appreciate your eagerness to work, but I would also appreciate it if you did as I say. I don’t want you to end up collapsing in my kitchen. Now go eat something.”

     Ukai’s eyes make it clear that he won’t take a no for an answer, and Kageyama is forced to leave the stove, and walk out of the kitchen, defeated. He does his best to ignore the mocking snickers that spread across the rest of the cooks at the small exchange.

     “If I hear _one_ more person laughing in _my_ kitchen…”

     Ukai doesn’t even need to finish the warning, before the kitchen is devoid of any sound that isn’t cooking-provoked.

     Kageyama pads into the resting room with a sigh, reluctantly opening his locker to take out his wallet. If he doesn’t eat something, Ukai will probably tie him to a chair and stuff him with leftovers. The thought is almost shiver-inducing.

     While he looks around his bag for his wallet, his phone starts ringing.

     _“Who the hell is calling me during working hours?”_ Kageyama wonders with a frown. He takes his phone out of his bag and stares at the screen, only to be greeted by big, white letters reading _Call from ‘Dumbass’._

_Of course._

     “What do you want?” Kageyama grunts into the phone after answering the call.

      _“Geez, how rude! I just wanted to ask you-”_ Hinata starts, but he’s interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open, and a loud, shrill scream that sounds a lot like _“Shouyouuuuu!”_

“Huh?” is the only thing Kageyama can utter at the sudden, unexplained noise on the other side of the line.

     _“Yachi, what the-!?”_ Hinata tries to speak, but he’s interrupted again, this time by the sound of falling things, and another high-pitched scream. _“Jesus, Yachi, my mom’s book, what are you doing!?”_

“What the hell is going on in there!?”

     _“Ah, Kageyama!”_ Hinata exclaims, as if he’s only then remembered that he was on the phone with him. _“Sorry, I’ll call you back!”_

And with that abrupt apology, Kageyama is left alone with the dial tone of his phone. He stares at it for a moment, before throwing it back on his bag.

     If this is the kind of shit he has to deal with when he’s not in the kitchen, he’d gladly give up on all his future afternoon breaks.

~•~

     Hinata stares disbelievingly at the scene before him: Yachi is pathetically sprawled on the floor, covered with various things that _used_ to be on top of the counter, including his mother’s cookbook, spread open on top of her chest.

     Moments ago, she had run in through the door in such a state of excitement that she had tripped over her own feet. She tried to hold on to the counter, effectively knocking about fifteen things over on her way down.

     “What the hell is wrong with you?” Hinata asks, slowly shaking his head in disapproval.

     “I’m sorry, I got too excited.” Yachi’s words are followed by a grunt of pain, and a grimace. “Please help me.”

     Hinata sighs and bends down to pick up the cookbook, along with several other things that fell on top of his friend. Yachi sits up with another groan, and rubs the back of her head with a tiny whimper.

     “What the hell were you so worked-up about?” Hinata asks, setting the book on the counter, still open on the page it was when Yachi knocked it off the counter.

     “Oh, right!” Yachi exclaims, seemingly forgetting all of her pain in less than a second. She jumps up, and smiles widely at him, with her eyes wide and shiny. “I just got back from my date!”

     “Right!” Hinata’s face fills with excitement as well, and he leans in closer to Yachi. “How was it!?”

     “Oh, Shou, it was _amazing!_ Kiyoko-san looked so gorgeous, you have no idea! And I know she always looks gorgeous, but today she was other-worldly, I swear to god! Oh, and the place was _so_ pretty! It was fancy, but not _too_ fancy. It was a perfect date restaurant. And the food was _sooooo_ good!”

     Yachi has started to spin around the living room, too immersed in her own happiness to notice that Hinata has long ago stopped listening to her. His eyes are fixed on the cookbook, still open on the same random page.

     “I ordered this risotto and it was _to die for_ ,” Yachi says, grabbing her own face in delight. “And then we just walked around the city and talked for hours, it was so romantic, Shou! And then-” she finally turns around, and her face falls when she notices Hinata’s lack of attention. “Are you even listening to me?”

     “I got it!” Hinata exclaims all of sudden, startling Yachi. He turns around with a big smile, and receives a confused look in return. “Yachi, you’re the best!”

     “I am?” Yachi asks, pointing at herself.

     But Hinata doesn’t answer. Instead, he grabs his keys and wallet from the counter, and runs to the front door in a rush.

     “Where are you going?” Yachi asks, growing more and more confused by the second.

     “I need to buy flour and sugar!” is all Hinata says before running out the door, slamming it shut behind himself.

~•~

    As soon as he walks into Hinata’s kitchen, Kageyama’s eyes fall on the ingredients resting on the countertop. There’s flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and-

     “Chocolate chips?” he asks, a deep frown making its way into his face.

     “Yup!” is Hinata’s answer.

     Kageyama looks at him, and then back at the ingredients.

     “And what exactly are you planning to cook with this?”

     “Chocolate chip cookies, of course,” Hinata says, rolling his eyes. “What else would I make with flour and chocolate chips, a salad?”

     “I wouldn’t be surprised if you tried,” Kageyama bites back, and Hinata sticks his tongue out at him. Kageyama crosses his arms over his chest, and stares at the ingredients again. “So, you want to make cookies.”

     “Yeah. Something wrong with that?”

     “Well,” Kageyama looks down at his shoes and bites his lower lip. He takes a few moments to continue, as if he’s having a hard time getting the words out. “I’m not really good a baking.”

     “No way! You’re actually _bad_ at cooking something!?” Hinata exclaims, eyes widening in disbelief.

     “I’m not _bad_ at it, you dumbass!” A soft blush spreads across Kageyama’s cheeks, and he looks away from Hinata before continuing. “It’s just that I haven’t done it much, that’s all.”

     “Well, the recipe seems easy!” Hinata says, grabbing his cookbook from the counter and flipping through the pages until he finds the recipe he was looking for. He hands the book to Kageyama.

     “It does seem easy,” he finally agrees, but he still doesn’t look convinced when he returns his gaze to Hinata’s face. “But I don’t know. Maybe baking is still too hard for you.”

     “Aw, come on, Kageyama, it’s been over a month!” Hinata whines with a pleading look. “When was the last time I burned something?”

     “Last week,” Kageyama deadpans, eyes hard and voice stern.

     “Ok, I didn’t _burn_ it. I prefer my fried rice crispy, that’s all!”

     Kageyama doesn’t even dignify Hinata’s argument with an answer, and instead gives him a silent judging look for at least fifteen seconds.

     “Weren’t you the one who said that fucking up is important?” Hinata says after the silence becomes too awkward.

     “Yeah, but-”

     “So, if I fuck this one up, you’ll know you were right when you said I wasn’t ready. But if I don’t, we’ll end up with a nice plate of homemade cookies!”

     “Ugh, fine!” Kageyama finally says, and a face-splitting grin spreads across Hinata’s face. “Do you have anything we can use to measure the ingredients?”

     Hinata nods, and rushes to inspect all the cabinets and drawers.

     “My mom sent me some utensils when I told her I was learning how to cook!” he explains with enthusiasm, setting some measuring cups and spoons on top of the counter.

     Once everything’s in place, Kageyama returns his gaze to the book.

     “Ok, let’s start by measuring everything. Here it says we’re gonna need 175 grams of flour…”

     Kageyama doesn’t even finish the sentence by the time Hinata is hastily opening the flour bag, sending a miniature cloud of white powder to invade the entire kitchen.

~•~

     “What’s the first step?” Hinata asks, with an overeager smile still shining brightly on his face. Kageyama turns on the oven, following the recipe’s directions, before turning to face him.

     “You have any bowl that’s big enough to mix everything in?” Kageyama asks, and Hinata nods.

     “Right there on that cabinet,” he says, turning to get it. He jumps and stretches his arms in a futile attempt to reach the cabinet doors, groaning and whining. Kageyama has to suppress a snicker when Hinata jumps up on the counter and opens the cabinet. He reaches out to grab the bowl before Hinata can. Hinata turns to glare at him, deeply offended, and is met by a teasing scoff.

     “Shorty,” Kageyama says with a smirk, and Hinata’s looks like he’s about to kill him.

     “Shut up, you giant noodle!” he says, and then squeaks when Kageyama uses the bowl to hit him on the head.

     Hinata snatches the bowl from Kageyama’s hands and jumps off the counter, rubbing his head while Kageyama tries to hide his amusement.

     “It says here you have to start by mixing all the dry ingredients in the bowl,” Kageyama indicates, reading the books instructions carefully.

     Hinata grabs the flour, sugar, and baking powder they had measured earlier, and carefully drops them inside the bowl. Kageyama hands him a wooden spoon, and he mixes them all together. Once he’s done, he turns to look at Kageyama with big, wide eyes, silently asking him for more instructions.

     They proceed like that for the next couple steps of the recipe; Kageyama tells Hinata what to do, and he does it without any major complications.

     Kageyama would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed. He’s used to the look of utter concentration on Hinata’s face, and the way he turns almost completely silent when he cooks. He is not used, however, to seeing Hinata _actually_ doing things right.

     “It almost looks like you know what you’re doing,” Kageyama observes, watching as Hinata mixes the ingredients together. Hinata turns to shoot him an offended glare, to which Kageyama responds with a scowl. “What? I didn’t say anything bad!”

     “That’s the worst part. You don’t even realize when you’re being mean!” Hinata says, scowling as well. “You should try and give me an actual compliment sometime,” he finishes with a huff, before turning back to the bowl where he’s mixing the ingredients.

     _“An actual compliment?”_ Kageyama thinks, crossing his arms over his chest. The creases on his forehead deepen, and he bites his lower lip, deep in thought.

     “Your hair always smells nice,” he blurts out all of sudden, and Hinata almost drops the bowl.

     “What the hell are you saying!?” Hinata exclaims, after fumbling for a couple seconds to stop the bowl from hitting the floor. He looks up at Kageyama with a bewildered expression on his face, and a full-on blush on his cheeks. “Don’t start saying weird things all of sudden!”

     Seeing Hinata’s surprise, Kageyama suddenly feels incredibly embarrassed as well, and he can feel his face heating up. He struggles to form a coherent answer, an objective that his mouth doesn’t seem to share with him.

     “Y-y-you’re the one who asked for a compliment!”

     “A compliment about my cooking skills, not my hair, you weirdo!”

     “Well, I can’t compliment your cooking skills, they suck!”

     “Your social skills suck!”

     Hinata’s last insult echoes around the kitchen, and then they are both silent while they try to catch their breath. After a few moments, Kageyama clears his throat and takes a step back. He crosses his arms over his chest, and pointedly looks away from Hinata.

     “I’m quite aware of that,” he mumbles.

     He hears Hinata shuffle his feet, and clear his throat too. When Kageyama turns to look back at him, Hinata has already returned to his cookie batter, mixing it silently. A few silent minutes pass, and Hinata keeps mixing, eyes fixed on the bowl, and mouth tightly closed.

     “How much longer are you gonna-?” Kageyama starts, impatient, but Hinata interrupts him.

     “Does it really smell good?”

     Kageyama blinks at him, surprised, but doesn’t answer. Hinata finally looks at him, and there’s some part of Kageyama that feels sincerely thrilled to see the slight pink that adorns his cheeks.

     “It does,” Kageyama mumbles, eyes fixed on Hinata’s wide, expectant ones. “Like coconut.” He finally tears his gaze off Hinata’s face to look at the mix inside the bowl. “You can stop mixing now, the batter is ready,” he comments.

     Kageyama sees Hinata nod out of the corner of his eye, and then catches something that could easily be a smile. When he turns to fully face Hinata, the smile is gone. The blush is still there, though.

~•~

     Hinata carefully opens the oven, and peeks inside, before turning to give Kageyama a dubious look.

     “They look like they’re done,” he says.

     “Then take them out,” Kageyama orders.

     Hinata hurries to grab a mitten and place it on his hand. He’s ready to take the cookies out the oven, when Kageyama stops him.

     “Wait!” Hinata stops dead in his tracks, and looks at him with questioning eyes. Kageyama grabs the mitten from Hinata’s hand to put it on instead, and then bumps his hips against Hinata’s to move him away. “I’ll do it. I don’t want you to burn yourself.”

     “I can do it!” Hinata complains, but one look from Kageyama is enough to send him to sulk against the counter.

     Once the cookies are out the oven, and resting on the countertop, both of them scurry to give them a closer look.

     “They look pretty good,” Hinata observes, earning a nod of approval from Kageyama. “Should we eat them now?”

     “No, you dumbass, wait until they cool down.”

     “Right, right.”

     A couple moments pass, but neither of them move. They keep looking at the cookies, as if they’re expecting them to explode at any moment.

     “You think they’ve cooled down already?” Hinata asks, extending his hand to poke at one of the cookies.

     “Of course not, you idiot!” Kageyama swats his hand away, and Hinata turns to glare at him. “You wanna burn yourself? Just wait a little bit longer!”

     “I wanna eat them nooooow!” Hinata whines, earning an eye-roll, and a fed-up groan from Kageyama.

     “Fine, go ahead, then!”

     “Yay!” Hinata cheers with a big smile. He reaches out to grab a cookie, and then immediately drops it back without a word.

     “You burned yourself, didn’t you?” Kageyama asks with a blank expression.

     “Nah, not really,” Hinata says with a small shrug.

     “Hinata…”

     “They’re hot as fuck.”

     “Of course they are, idiot!” Kageyama exclaims, and Hinata runs to the sink to let the water run over his burned hand.

~•~ 

     “You try them first.”

     “Why me? Weren’t you super impatient to try them just now?”

     “Nah, not really.”

     “You burned your hand with one of them.”

     “Ok, maybe I _did_ want to try them. But now I’m nervous. You barely even helped me, what if I fucked up really bad?”

     “That would be normal.”

     “You are such-!”

     Hinata cuts himself short when Kageyama reaches out to grab a cookie from the plate. He watches expectantly as Kageyama takes a bite, and then chews slowly.

     “So? How are they?” Hinata asks nervously after Kageyama swallows. Kageyama turns to look at him, expressionless, and Hinata grimaces, ready for a verbal smack down. “I’m sorry, I know I always ruin every-!”

     “They’re delicious.”

     Hinata snaps his head to look at Kageyama, eyes wide with surprise.

     “They are?”

     “They are.”

     Hinata hurries to grab a cookie from the plate, and then takes a bite out of it. As soon as he begins to chew, his eyes widen, and he lets out an appreciative hum.

     “Whoa, they _are_ good!”

     He pops the rest of the cookie into his mouth and chews eagerly. Just before reaching out to grab another one, he turns to say something to Kageyama. He stops when he notices that Kageyama has been standing there silently for a while now, looking at the remains of the cookie in his hand with a deep frown on his face.

     “Kageyama-kun?” Hinata tentatively calls his name, and Kageyama takes his eyes off the cookie to look at him, keeping his brow furrowed. “Is something wrong?”

     “I just can’t believe you made this,” Kageyama mumbles.

     Hinata silently blinks at him a couple times, and then sighs.

     “Honestly, at this point, I can’t tell if you’re purposefully being offensive or not.”

~•~

     Minutes keep passing, and the cookies keep disappearing from the plate. After their third cookie, Hinata volunteered to make tea. They have fallen into a comfortable conversation (adorned with some of their usual bickering and insult-exchanging), so it isn’t until there’s only one cookie left in the plate that Hinata realizes that it’s been almost an hour since they took the cookies out of the oven, and Kageyama hasn’t left his apartment yet.

     “You’re… not gonna leave?” Hinata asks softly. Somehow, he feels that if he reminds Kageyama that he has stayed without Hinata having to ask, he’ll run out the door like a scared deer.

     But Kageyama doesn’t even look at him. Instead, he grabs the last cookie from the plate, and inspects it thoughtfully.

     “I told you, didn’t I?” he finally says, earning a questioning look from Hinata. “That when you made something good enough, I would stay,” he elaborates.

     Kageyama then breaks the cookie in half. He offers one half to Hinata, who takes it with a bit more hesitation than necessary.

     “It’s the last one,” Kageyama explains nonchalantly, before popping his half of the cookie into his mouth.

     Hinata stares at Kageyama, and then at the cookie in his hand. A warm feeling spreads across his chest when he replays Kageyama’s words inside his mind. And maybe, just maybe, his heart skips a beat when he looks at Kageyama again.

     “Was that…?” he mumbles.

     “An actual compliment?” Kageyama says, and then gives him a tiny smirk. “Well, maybe you have _some_ cooking skills.”

     Hinata blinks slowly at him a couple times, before the corners of his lips move to mirror Kageyama’s tiny smile.

     “And maybe you have _some_ social skills,” he teases, and receives a soft scowl, and a muttered _“dumbass”_ in return.

     His heart _definitely_ skips a beat when he catches sight of Kageyama’s badly concealed smile.

     Because along with his sudden cardiac malfunctions, comes the realization that he was really, really happy to hear Kageyama’s words.

~•~

     There’s countless memories of endless cooking lessons with his mother stored inside his mind. There’s a special one, though, one that his mind loves to conjure when he least expects it: the way his mother smiled, and the softness of her voice when she told him the same thing she used to tell him every time she finished tying her apron behind her back.

     “Listen, Tobio,” she said, bending down to be face to face with him. “You wanna know what the most important thing is when it comes to cooking?”

     As the years passed, she had to bend down less and less to look at her son, until one day she began looking up. Their physical dynamics changed, but Kageyama’s response never did: an enthusiastic nod, and the faintest of smiles. As if he didn’t already know what she was going to say.

~•~

     The beeping sound of his alarm clock forces him to open his eyes, taking him away from warm memories of soft smiles, expertly tied aprons, and countless repetitions of a same old advice.

     Kageyama blinks and rubs his eyes to try and get rid of any remnants of sleepiness. Looking up at the ceiling, he thinks of the words his mother didn’t get to say in his dream. He lets them dance inside his mind, until they manage to bring a smile to his lips.

     “I know, mom,” he mumbles. Slowly, his smile fades from his lips, and he throws his arm over his eyes. “But I don’t think I have found someone yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I have a severe obsession with Hinata baking cookies.
> 
> I'm sorry, I know this is super late! Those of you who follow me on Tumblr might know that my laptop got stolen about three weeks ago, so my access to computers has been pretty limited lately. Also, I'm at the end of the semester, which means tons and tons of homework. Again, I'm sorry for the delay.
> 
> As always, thanks to my amazing beta, Miss_Macabre_Grey, and thanks to you for all your comments and kudos. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you think! :)


	5. Chapter 5

     “You know staring at it won’t make it cook any faster, right?”

     Hinata turns his head to glare at Kageyama from over his shoulder, and then returns to staring intently at the oven. Kageyama heaves a sigh before walking over to Hinata, who has been crouched in front of the oven for at least ten minutes now.

     “I just want it to be done already,” Hinata says once Kageyama is standing next to him. “I want to know if it will turn out okay…”

     “It probably will,” Kageyama reassures him, laying back against the counter.

     “That’s because you helped me.”

     “I only made the meringue because you almost killed yourself with the beater.”

     “I was handling it!” Hinata exclaims, turning to give Kageyama an offended look. “It’s not my fault if that stupid machine tried to turn on me…”

     “It’s just an appliance, you idiot, it can’t turn on you.”

     “It’s an _evil_ appliance!”

     Just before Kageyama can come up with an answer, the loud ringing of the oven’s timer echoes around the kitchen. Hinata immediately springs up, grinning like a little kid, and hurries to grab his mitten.

     Once the lemon pie is safely out of the oven, Hinata takes plenty of time to stare at it, and poke at the brownish surface of the meringue.

     “Well, it looks fine,” he concludes.

     “Told you,” Kageyama says

     “I wonder if it tastes good…”

     “It will. Calm down, dumbass,” Kageyama sighs when Hinata gives him a doubtful look. He drops his hand on Hinata’s shoulder with a little more force than necessary for what was supposed to be a reassuring gesture. “You haven’t have any major fucks up in the last couple weeks. I’m sure it turned out fine.”

     “Yeah, but all we’ve been doing is baking stuff!”

     “Then that means you’re actually good at baking.”

     When Hinata looks up to find an uncommonly gentle expression on Kageyama’s face, the hand on his shoulder begins to feel a little bit too heavy.

     “Did you just say ‘good’?” Hinata mumbles, staring wide-eyed at him.

     “What?” the reappearance of Kageyama’s characteristic frown brings Hinata back to reality.

     “Nothing!” he squeaks out with a smile too wide and eyes too big. “Let’s put this in the fridge, shall we?”

     When he opens the fridge, Hinata can’t help but wonder if putting his head inside of it along with the lemon pie will help him get rid of the strange hotness on his cheeks.

~•~

     “He was flirting.”

     “What!? No!” Hinata scrunches up his face and violently shakes his head. “He just told me that I didn’t suck _that_ bad!”

     “Coming from a guy like him, that’s _definitely_ flirting.”

     “Shut up, Yachi.”

     “Convincing argument.” Yachi smiles teasingly at him from where she’s seating on the kitchen counter. Then her face drops into a completely serious expression. “Now give me some lemon pie.”

     Hinata grudgingly cuts a slice of pie and places it on a plate before handing it to Yachi, who accepts it with a radiant _“Thank you, chef!”_ As soon as she takes a bite, her face twists into a gigantic smile.

     “Do you like it?” Hinata asks, and he receives a quick nod and a thumbs up from Yachi. He smiles proudly; letting Yachi taste the things he cooks is always good for his self-esteem.

     Suddenly, Yachi’s face scrunches up, and she shakes her head a little.

     “A bit too acid, huh?” Hinata asks with a small grimace. Yachi nods, and Hinata sighs. “Kageyama said the same thing… I guess I’ll use a little less lemon juice next time.”

     “It’s still delicious!” Yachi reassures him before diving in to take another bite. “You still ate more than half of it, didn’t you?”

     “Kageyama did, I only had once slice.”

     “Didn’t he say it was too acid?”

     “He still liked it, I gue-Don’t!” Hinata exclaims when he notices the teasing expression that’s beginning to form on Yachi’s face. Yachi shrugs and keeps chewing in silence. “What’s the best part?” Hinata asks after a while. Yachi thinks it over for a moment before answering.

     “Well, it’s delicious as a whole, but the meringue is especially good.”

     “Of course,” Hinata mumbles, visibly deflating.

     “Kageyama did it, didn’t he?”

     “Yup.”

     “Sorry, Shou, but it feels like eating a tiny cloud,” Yachi says, and Hinata answers with a groan. “But the entire thing is super good!” she hurries to say, trying to comfort her friend. “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a crust so good!”

     “Really!?” Hinata’s excitement returns to his face, and Yachi nods encouragingly. “I made it all on my own!”

     “Did Kageyama like it?”

     “Yes, he di-SHUT UP, YACHI!”

     But Yachi is already running away into the living room, laughing loudly. Trying to fight the smile that threatens to invade his face, Hinata quickly chooses his flowery apron as a weapon, before following her into the living room with a mighty battle cry.

~•~

     “Sugawara-san!”

     Suga finishes typing something on the computer behind the bar before looking up at Kageyama with a soft smile.

     “What is it?”

     “Ukai-san told me to go eat lunch, or he will force me to eat the interns’ fuck ups for the rest of the month,” Kageyama explains with a blank expression.

     “O…kay?” Suga says slowly, frowning slightly.

     “He also told me that there’s more than enough shitty food for you if you don’t leave the computer and eat something,” Kageyama continues, looking more and more uncomfortable with each word that leaves his mouth.

     “You heard him, Sugawara!” Ukai appears in the kitchen doorway, just as Suga is about to answer. “Take your hard-working ass to the resting room!”

     “Why, Ukai-san, I’m flattered that you think so highly of my ass!” Suga says, earning a badly-concealed laugh from Kageyama.

     It takes one deadly glare from Ukai for Suga to grab Kageyama by the arm and drag him away with a soft _“Let’s go have lunch, shall we?”_

_~•~_

     Suga slides his empty bento box away and throws himself back into the chair with a tiny sigh.

     “Ah, I’m so full!” he says, looking up at the ceiling with a satisfied smile on his face. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating.”

     He turns to look at Kageyama to say something else, just in time to see him pulling out a small container from his lunch bag. Suga’s eyes widen immediately, and he leans in towards Kageyama.

     “Is that lemon pie?” Suga asks, and Kageyama nods.

     “Do you want some?”

     He offers the container and a spoon to Suga, who accepts it with an eager smile before taking a small bite. He chews silently for a moment, and then lets out an appreciative noise.

     “Do you like it?” Kageyama asks, and then smiles little when Suga nods his head.

     “It’s delicious!” Suga exclaims. “Did you make it?”

     “No.”

     “Did you buy it?”

     “Ah, no,” Kageyama stops talking when he notices the mischievous little gleam in Suga’s eyes.

     “Someone made it for you, then?” Suga asks, and Kageyama does not like the teasing tone of his voice one bit.

     “No, I mean, kind of. I mean, no-” Kageyama stammers in search of an answer, and Suga’s smile seems to stretch eve further with every syllable that leaves his lips. “Please stop staring at me like that, Sugawara-san!”

     “Aw, Kageyama, are you blushing?”

     “I am not!”

     Suga laughs and stands up, picking up his bento box on the way up.

     “I’m gonna get back to work,” he announces. He turns around to leave, and then turns back around to snatch another bite of Kageyama’s lemon pie before running out the resting room with a cheerful wave of his hand.

     Kageyama watches him go, and then stares at the lemon pie for a few seconds before sighing loudly. He lays his head on the table and sighs again, softer this time.

     “Of course he didn’t make it for me,” he mumbles. “What an idiot.”

~•~

     “Hey, Hinata.”

     Hinata’s answer comes as a little hum, and he doesn’t even take his eyes off the pancake batter he’s making. Kageyama is almost offended about the lack of attention he’s receiving, but at the same time, he’s kind of impressed of the levels of concentration that Hinata can reach when he’s cooking. Kageyama takes a moment to observe him, stopping for a few seconds to stare at the small creases on his forehead, before formulating the question that’s been running around his mind almost since Hinata started to measure the ingredients.

     “Who do you cook for?”

     “Huh?” Hinata finally looks up from the bowl to give Kageyama a confused look. “What do you mean?”

     “I mean exactly that, you dumbass, it’s a simple question,” Kageyama says, trying to stop himself from sounding as exasperated as he feels with Hinata’s denseness.

     “For myself, I guess, when I get hungry,” Hinata answer after glaring shortly at Kageyama.

     “That doesn’t count, you-” Kageyama sighs and calms himself down before continuing. “I mean someone else.”

     Hinata scrunches up his nose in thought for a moment, and then returns to his batter. He silently pours it on a nearby pan, and then waits a couple minutes to carefully flip the pancakes around with a spatula. He works silently, eyes fixed on the pancakes. Kageyama has already given up on the prospect of getting an actual answer, when Hinata’s voice surprises him.

     “If I were to pick someone else,” he says, and then pauses to take the pancakes off the pan and into a plate, and pour some more batter into the pan. Hinata turns to look at Kageyama in the eye, and for a moment, his eyes seem too big, too brown, and too shiny. “I would say you.”

     Neither of them says anything. The only noise in the kitchen is the sizzling of the pancakes in the pan, and even that becomes deafening after a while. Kageyama’s expression doesn’t change, but Hinata’s brow slowly furrows when he doesn’t get an answer.

     “Kageyama-san?”

     “Me?” When Kageyama finally speaks, his voice sounds strange and strained.

     “Yes, you,” Hinata says, as if his answer had been the most natural thing in the world. As if Kageyama wasn’t on the verge of a mental breakdown right in front of him.

     “Me,” Kageyama repeats, as blankly as he can.

     “Yeah, I mean,” Hinata turns to flip the pancakes, and keeps talking without looking at Kageyama. “I like cooking for Yachi, because she always likes what I make, and she makes dumb noises when she eats, but…”

     Just when Kageyama is beginning to get a hold of himself, Hinata turns to smile radiantly at him. And if his eyes were too bright before, there’s no way to describe them now.

     “I cook for you, because I have to show you just how good I can get!”

     Kageyama is struggling to form coherent thoughts, so he chooses to remain silent instead of trying to form sentences. Once again, Hinata’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts and catches him by surprise.

     “And you?” Kageyama looks up to find nothing but honest curiosity on Hinata’s face. “Who do _you_ cook for, Kageyama?”

     “Your pancakes are gonna get burned.”

     Hinata lets out a loud _“Shit!”_ and then scrambles to flip the pancakes with tiny shrieks of panic. Kageyama suppresses a relieved sigh, and then approaches the stove to help Hinata out before he has to end up taking him to the hospital.

~•~

     Despite everything, Hinata is thankful that Kageyama is at work when he forgets the croquets in the oven. Now, after at least fifteen minutes of fanning out smoke while Yachi tried to open the windows that were too tall for her, Hinata stares, defeated, at the mess of burned tuna that adorns the sink.

     “How did this happen?” Yachi asks disbelievingly at the mess before them. She coughs a little.

     “I fell asleep on the couch and I left them in the oven because I didn’t want to fry them,” Hinata explains in a monotone voice. He pokes at the ex-croquets and sighs. “Kageyama would kill me if he found out.”

     “Well, he doesn’t have to know!” Yachi tries to reassure him, but Hinata only sighs again. “Aw, come on, it’s not that bad.”

     “I would’ve _died_ if you hadn’t come home! Death by smoke. Kageyama would go find me in the afterlife and _kick my ass!_ ”

     “Well, Kageyama isn’t here!” Yachi exclaims, exasperated. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down, and then claps Hinata’s back softly. Hinata gives her a sad look, and Yachi responds with a sympathetic smile. “You know what? Maybe we could eat out today!”

     “Really?” Yachi’s suggestions seems to cheer Hinata up a little.

     “Yeah! It’s been a while since we had a dinner date.”

~•~

     For a place so nice, they could afford to hire nicer waiters, Hinata thinks, watching as the gigantic stick they got for a waiter walks away with their drink orders.

     “Geez, what a charming guy,” Hinata snorts, and Yachi laughs nervously.

     “But the place is super nice! And just wait till you try the food,” Yachi says, almost bouncing on her seat with excitement.

     “You only like it because Shimizu-san brought you here,” Hinata teases, only to receive a crumpled napkin to his forehead.

     “It _is_ a nice place!”

     Hinata looks around and nods in agreement; everything from the soft lights and gentle music playing at a low volume from the speakers, to the red-painted walls and matching tablecloths creates a nice atmosphere. The place is definitely nice, to say the least, even with its ridiculously tall, and not-so-charming waiters.

~•~

     “Sugawara-san!” Kageyama calls out, leaning out the kitchen door.

     “Yes?” Suga’s gentle voice reaches him from behind the counter, where he’s checking inventories at the computer.

      “Could you forward the order of capers, please? We’re about to run out.”

     “Sure thing, give me a moment, please,” Suga says, typing away on the computer.

     “And parmesan, too!” Ukai says, appearing on the doorway behind Kageyama. He uses the back of his hand to wipe his forehead, coated with sweat, and then looks into the main room, where the costumers are sitting. “Whoa, busy night tonight, huh?”

     “Yup,” is Suga’s only answer.

     Kageyama looks into the main room as well, and then promptly chokes on his own spit.

     Because sitting on table three is a very familiar mop of orange hair.

~•~

     “Hey, Shouyou, isn’t that Kageyama?”

     Hinata had never looked behind his back so fast in his life. Effectively, standing in the kitchen doorway behind the counter, is Kageyama staring at him like he had just seen a ghost. A wide smile spreads across Hinata’s face as soon as he sees him, and he raises one arm over his head to wave at him.

     “Hey, Kageyama!”

     Kageyama jumps up a little, and then scurries back into the kitchen, much to Hinata’s dismay.

     “Wow, rude,” Hinata mumbles, scowling slightly. He hears Yachi laughing in front of him, and he turns to look at her. “Did you know Kageyama worked here?”

     “Nope.”

     Hinata looks behind his back again, and then his frown deepens when his eyes fall on the empty doorway. He looks away at the waiter’s unenthusiastic “Are you ready to order?” but he’s sure he caught an interested smile on the lips of the guy behind the counter.

~•~

     _“Why the hell is he here?”_

     Kageyama stirs the onion with a little more force than necessary, and tiny bits of it fall out of the pan and into the fire. But he doesn’t even notice it, immersed as he is in his own thoughts,

     _“What the hell is he doing here?”_

     “Kageyama-san?”

     “What!?” Kageyama yells, and then immediately regrets it when he sees the scared expression on the face of his underling.

     “You’re… stirring my onion,” she says slowly, watching him with wide eyes.

     “Oh. Sorry,” Kageyama mumbles, and then turns around before she can notice his embarrassment.

     “What the hell was that, Kageyama?” Ukai asks in an amused tone, and Kageyama blushes even harder.

     “One risotto and one spaghetti Bolognese!” Suga’s voice comes into the kitchen from the small window that leads to the main room just before Kageyama can answer. He looks up just in time to see Suga staring intently at him with a smile on his lips. “For table three.”

     “Yes!” one of the cooks calls out, and rushes to try and grab the small paper that Suga is offering from behind the window.

     “I’ll take it!”

     Before he can stop to think about it, Kageyama is running towards Suga to grab the paper before the other cook can. The two of them stare at Kageyama with evident surprise.

     “I’ll take this order,” Kageyama says, trying to fight the blush that threatens to invade his cheeks when he realizes just how strange he must’ve acted.

     “As you please,” Suga’s words sound almost like a purr, and a knowing smile returns to his lips for a moment, before he disappears from the window.

     Kageyama turns around to find half the kitchen staring at him with raised eyebrows and confused expressions. He coughs loudly, and hurries to the stove, ignoring the stares of the other cooks.

     “Table three, huh?” Ukai’s voice drifts over to him, and Kageyama looks up to see him standing in front of him, next to Takeda. “That table was…”

     “The blonde girl and the short redhead,” Takeda supplies, apparently very focused on chopping some vegetables. But the tiniest of smiles on his lips gives him away.

     “Ah! Could it be that she’s your girl, Kageyama?” Ukai says with a grin, and then wiggles his eyebrows when Kageyama looks up to give him a bewildered stare. “Is that why you’re stirring other people’s onions?”

     “What!? No!” Kageyama exclaims, and then turns to glare at the small audience that his small exchange with Ukai has gained.

     Ukai waits until everybody hurries to focus on their work to keep tormenting Kageyama.

     “Or could it be…?” he starts, and the way his grin expands across his face almost makes a shiver run down Kageyama’s spine. “The redhead?”

     Kageyama’s spluttering, and Ukai’s booming laughter are enough to gain the unwanted attention back.

     “No, definitely not!” Kageyama exclaims after he regains the ability to speak.

     “Ukai-kun.” Takeda’s gentle voice cuts Ukai’s next attack short. “Your sauce is gonna get burned.”

     “Shit!” Ukai exclaims, hurrying to turn off the stove.

     Kageyama sighs, relieved, and then turns to look at Takeda.

     “Thank you,” he mouths.

     Takeda winks at him, and Kageyama gets the sudden urge to chop himself up and jump into the nearest pan available.

~•~

    When Tsukishima brings one risotto and one spaghetti Bolognese to table three, Kageyama is definitely not spying from behind the kitchen doorway. He just wants to get some fresh air, that’s all. Also, he’s definitely _not_ staring at Hinata. But in case he was, it’s just a matter of pride; he needs to know whether he likes his food or not. It’s nothing but investigation. He’s a top notch chef, after all, it’s only natural that he wants to know his clients opinions, right?

     “Please stop eye-fucking the clients, King,” Tsukishima says as soon as he sets foot behind the counter to retrieve a bunch of napkins. “It’s getting creepy.”

     “Tsukishima, you bastard!” Kageyama hisses, tearing his eyes off the back of Hinata’s head to glare furiously at Tsukishima. “I’m not-!”

     “Wahhhh, so good!”

     “Shouyou, too loud!”

     At the sudden outburst of noise, dozens of heads turn towards Yachi and Hinata’s table. Yachi’s face immediately turns red, and she gives an apologetic smile before turning to glare at Hinata. But he pays her and the rest no mind, and instead chooses to shove another forkful of risotto into his mouth. He says something else to Yachi, but Kageyama can’t hear him this time.

     They talk for a moment and then, much to Kageyama’s surprise, Hinata turns around on his chair to face him. Before Kageyama can react, Hinata beams brightly at him, and gives him two thumbs up. Then, he turns back around, leaving a very dumbfounded Kageyama to stare at the back of his head.

     “Kageyama, what are you doing?” Ukai’s annoyed voice reaches Kageyama’s ears from behind his back, and he absently turns around to look at him. “We need you back the- Whoa!” Ukai nearly jumps back when he sees Kageyama’s face. “Kageyama, are you smiling!?”

     “I am?” Kageyama asks, and his characteristic frown returns to his face.

     He can hear Tsukishima and Suga snicker behind him, but he doesn’t dare to turn back to glare at them. Not when he risks catching sight of Hinata’s orange locks again.

~•~

     “Do you need help with anything, Sugawara-san?”

     “No, you can go, Kageyama,” Suga waves at him from behind the counter, and smiles softly. “I still need to check the inventories.”

     Kageyama nods, and bows his head before opening the front door and stepping out into the street. The nightly that hits his face is chilly, and it brings all sort of noises with it: cars on the streets, crickets, distant laughter and conversations…

     “Kageyama-san~”

     Kageyama nearly jumps out of his skin. He scrambles away in an instant to stare wide-eyed at the person before him.

     “Hinata!? What the hell are you doing?”

     “Waiting for you, of course,” Hinata explains, rolling his eyes as if his answer was obvious.

     “You scared the hell out of me, dumbass.”

     Kageyama regains his composure with a deep breath, and looks around.

     “Where’s Yachi-san?”

     “She went home. I thought we could walk home together, so I stayed and waited for you to come out!”

     “You waited for me?”

     “Yeah. Man, you sure took your time to come out!”

     “Shut up, nobody asked you to wait for me!”

     “Geez, always so rude!” Hinata crosses his arms over his chest with a frown that’s quickly replaced by a smile. “Let’s go, then!”

     Without waiting for an answer, Hinata turns around and begins to walk down the street, humming a song that Kageyama has never heard before.

     “Who says I want to walk home with you,” Kageyama grumbles, but he still hurries to catch up with Hinata.

~•~

     Just as they turn around the corner of their building, Hinata finally speaks up, after a couple blocks of being silent.

     “Hey, Kageyama…”

     Kageyama turns to look at Hinata, expecting him to meet his gaze. But Hinata doesn’t tear his eyes off of his shoes, seemingly deep in thought. He doesn’t speak at all for a couple minutes, and just when Kageyama is beginning to think that Hinata has forgotten what he was going to say, his voice reaches his ears once again.

     “Earlier today,” Hinata says, still looking down at his feet. “You asked me who I cooked for, but you never told me who _you_ cook for. I didn’t press it, because I thought that you didn’t want me to know, for some reason.”

     _“Shit, so he did realize,”_ Kageyama thinks while doing his best effort to keep a straight face.

     They reach the main door of their building and stop. Kageyama turns to face Hinata, eager to hear the rest of what he has to say. Hinata fiddles with the hem of his shirt, still refusing to meet Kageyama’s insistent gaze.

     “But tonight, at the restaurant, you cooked for me.” Hinata finally looks up, and when his eyes meet Kageyama’s, he can’t stop a gigantic smile from spreading across his face. “And that made me really, really happy!”

     Kageyama blinks at him a couple times, but doesn’t say anything. Watching Kageyama’s stoic expression, Hinata can feel his cheeks slowly beginning to burn, until he feels like his head is about to explode.

     “W-well, goodnight!” Hinata chokes out. He forces a smile into his face and then, sprints inside the building without even waiting for Kageyama to answer.

     He runs all the way to his apartment, and then struggles to get the key into the keyhole. He stumbles inside and slams the door closed behind him.

     “Hey, you’re back!” Yachi steps out of her bedroom to greet him, and as soon as he catches sight of Hinata’s disheveled state, her expression twists into one of absolute worry. “Shouyou, what’s wrong!?”

     “Yachiiiii!” Hinata whines pathetically, extending his arms towards her.

     Yachi spreads her arms wide and lets Hinata crash into her to bury his face in the crook of her neck.

     “There, there,” she says, patting his back. “What happened?”

     “Yachi,” Hinata mumbles against the fabric of Yachi’s t-shirt. “I think I’m in too deep…”

     “About time you realized!”

     “Shut up, I hate you.”

     “Yes, yes.” Yachi pats his back again, trying to hold back her laughter while Hinata whines against her.

     Unbeknown to them, Kageyama is still standing outside the building, silently wondering how is it possible that a couple words and a smile can make his heart beat so stupidly fast.

~•~

     The bell tinkles softly when Hinata opens the door to walk into the restaurant. He looks around for a moment, appreciating just how nice and warm the place looks during the day.

     “Welcome!” a cheerful voice startles him. Hinata looks at the person who spoke, standing behind the counter, and he smiles at him before speaking up again. “Can I help you?”

     Hinata blinks at the man for a moment, and then he recognizes him as the same person who had been in charge of the cash register last night, when he came with Yachi. He looks kind enough, so Hinata approaches him.

     “Excuse me, I’m looking for Kageyama?” Hinata’s voice ends up coming as a question.

     “Of course you are,” the man behind the counter says. He flashes him a tiny smile before turning around towards the kitchen doorway. “Kageyama!”

     Kageyama’s head emerges from the kitchen a few seconds later.

     “What is it, Suga- Hinata!?”

     “Hey,” Hinata chokes out nervously, waving at him.

     “What the hell are you doing here?” Kageyama steps out of the kitchen to walk towards Hinata, who takes a step back almost unconsciously. Kageyama coughs and looks away when he catches sight of the slight blush that covers Hinata’s cheeks, suddenly remembering the awkwardness of their last conversation.

     “I tried to make banana bread today, and it turned out pretty good,” Hinata starts after a few moments, sounding normal this time. “I wanted you to try it, so I thought I’d bring some for you on my way to class!”

     Kageyama accepts the small tupperware that Hinata offers him, and then blinks silently at him a couple times.

     “Thanks,” he mumbles, eliciting a small grin from Hinata. Once again, Kageyama finds himself coughing and averting his gaze, and a deep frown slips into his expression. “But don’t think you can come and bother me while I’m working, dumbass!”

     “Man, you’re such an ass sometimes!” Hinata grumbles. He jumps towards Kageyama with his arms extended to try and snatch the tupperware from his hands. “Give me back my banana bread!”

     “No!” Kageyama raises his arm and steps aside to avoid Hinata’s attack. Hinata charges at him again a couple times, only to be avoided every time.

     They both freeze on their spots when they hear Suga snort, and turn to look at him. Suga stares at them with wide eyes, and then snorts again, failing to hide his amusement.

     “Sorry, sorry!” he apologizes between bouts of laughter. “You keep doing your thing, don’t mind me!”

     Hinata steps away from Kageyama, blushing furiously out of sheer embarrassment. If he was able to look anywhere but the floor, he’d find out that the state of Kageyama’s cheeks is no better than his.

     “You can keep it, I guess,” Hinata mumbles.

     “I _was_ going to keep it,” Kageyama mumbles back.

     They glare shortly at each other before Hinata grumbles a quick goodbye. He turns around and walks towards the door. Then, he stops dead in his tracks and turns back around to bow deeply at Suga, who waves cheerfully at him and bows his head a little in return, always smiling. Finally, he struts out the door.

     Kageyama watches him go, holding the tupperware with both hands.

     “So it _was_ the redhead!” Ukai exclaims all of sudden, appearing behind Kageyama and nearly killing him with surprise.

     Kageyama had never felt such an intense desire to fling himself into the sun.

~•~

     Later, when rumors begin to spread about the sous chef having a “cute boyfriend who cooks for him”, Kageyama isn’t really sure if he should blame Suga, Ukai, or both.

     Or Hinata. It’s definitely Hinata’s fault. Definitely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr!


	6. Chapter 6

     “Move.”

     Hinata bumps his hip against Kageyama’s thigh on his way to the fridge. He reaches out to grab a handful of blueberries, and throws them on the bowl he’s holding under his arm. Then he walks back to place the bowl on the countertop, bumping his hip against Kageyama again to make him move. Kageyama glares at him with evident annoyance, but still takes a step to the side.

     “You know you could just walk around me, right?”

     “You’re bothering the chef by standing in the middle of the kitchen, Kageyama.”

     “I’m the chef here, dumbass!”

     “Well, I’m the one making the muffins, so…”

     “You would’ve used salt instead of sugar if I hadn’t been here!” Kageyama huffs, and crosses his arms over his chest. “Besides, no respectable chef would wear _that_ thing.”

     Hinata looks down at his flowery apron, before shooting Kageyama a nasty glare.

     “What’s wrong with my apron?”

     “It’s hideous.”

     Hinata gasps loudly, bringing a hand to his chest like an offended old lady.

     “Take that back!”

     Kageyama flicks Hinata on the nose, and turns to look into the bowl while Hinata rubs at his nose, and insults him in a nasal voice.

     “You used too many blueberries,” Kageyama observes.

     “We’re making blueberry muffins, of course I’d use a lot of blueberries!” Hinata retorts, still rubbing his nose.

     “These are not blueberry muffins, this is blueberries with batter!”

     “Just the way I like them.” Hinata opens a nearby drawer, and rummages around it for a while before pulling out a small package. He slams it on the counter, and places his hands on his hips in a defiant gesture. “And we’re gonna put them in these.”

     Kageyama stares at the muffin liners that Hinata just set in the counter. They’re covered in a painfully colorful flower pattern that strangely matches Hinata’s apron. Kageyama silently looks back and forth between the muffin liners and Hinata’s determined expression, and then heaves a tiresome sigh.

     “Where the hell do you buy all this flowery shit?”

     “Why, do you want a new apron?”

     Hinata is too slow to escape from Kageyama’s hand when he reaches out to place death grip on his head. He’s too busy with complaining and wriggling to try and get away, to hear the front door opening and closing, and the subsequent footsteps that approach the kitchen.

     “Guess who has another daaaaate!”

     Yachi slides into the kitchen on her socks, and strikes a surfing-like pose when she stops. Then, she notices Kageyama standing in front of her, and immediately proceeds to turn an impressive shade of pink.

     “Hello, Kageyama-san,” she greets him slowly, still standing in the same ridiculous pose.

     “Good morning, Yachi-san,” Kageyama returns the greeting without letting go of Hinata’s head. Hinata watches the exchange with badly-contained amusement.

     “I’m… gonna go now. Have fun.”

     With that, Yachi stiffly turns around and walks out the kitchen. Hinata and Kageyama watch her go in silence, and Hinata waits until he hears the sound of the door of Yachi’s bedroom slamming shut, before bursting into hysterical laughing.

     “Oh, my god!” he huffs out once he can breathe again. “Yachi is the best!”

     “You think I made her embarrassed?” Kageyama asks, sounding concerned, and Hinata breaks into laughter one more time.

     “Of course you did! Didn’t you see her?”

     “But why?” Kageyama’s frown deepens, and Hinata’s laughter recedes when he notices how worried he is.

     “Yachi is super shy, and you’re scary,” he explains.

     “I’m not scary!” Kageyama exclaims. Hinata raises his eyebrows at him, and Kageyama huffs and turns his head to the side. “Anyway, she doesn’t sound shy when you talk about her.”

     “But she is. She’s a little shit around me ‘cause I’ve known her for years.” Hinata turns to mix in the blueberries with the rest of the batter, smiling softly. “When I first met her, she was like one of those really nervous Chihuahuas that tremble a lot.”

     “I heard that!” Yachi calls out from the hallway, on her way to the bathroom. Hinata laughs again, but doesn’t answer. He waits until he hears the bathroom door being shut before continuing.

     “But she was always kind and willing to help, like now.” Hinata turns to look at the sky, and sighs. “Man, she was so cute back then! Now it’s like she gets her life-force out of bullying me.”

     “I can understand her,” Kageyama says, earning a questioning look from Hinata. He shrugs. “I mean, it _is_ pretty satisfying to bully you.”

     This time, it’s Kageyama who isn’t fast enough to avoid the flying lump of batter that Hinata throws his way.

~•~

     “Nice receive!”

     Hinata’s arms tingle where the ball slammed against them. It’s the most wonderful feeling. He smiles a little and immediately runs forward to spike the ball into the opponent’s side of the court. His entire team cheers loudly, and Tanaka claps him in the back.

     “You’re pretty energetic today, huh?” he asks with a smirk.

     “Course!” Hinata says, returning the smile.

     “Alright, everybody, one more point!” the coach calls out behind them.

     “Osu!” the entire team replies in unison.

~•~

     Hinata gulps down on his water like he hadn’t drunk one drop in months. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and sighs with exhaustion.

     “Great game today!” Nishinoya exclaims, flopping down on the floor beside him. Hinata nods enthusiastically, and Nishinoya grins at him. “It’s been a while since we won a practice match.”

     “Hinata!”

     “Yes, sir!” Hinata is up and standing in the blink of an eye when his coach calls out his name. He hears Nishinoya stifle a giggle beside him.

     The coach walks to Hinata, and stands in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest. His expression is stern and scary as usual, but then he breaks into a smile.

     “You did a very good job today,” he says, earning two owlish blinks from Hinata. The man drops a heavy hand on Hinata’s shoulder, and Hinata silently thanks the heavens that his clavicle is still in one piece. “Keep it up.”

     “Yes, sir!”

     The coach squeezes his shoulder before walking away. Hinata watches him go for a moment. Then, he heaves a sigh and sits back down.

     “I always think he’s going to be yell at me when he calls my name,” he says.

     “I know, right?” Nishinoya agrees with a sympathetic wince. “Whoa, what happened to your hands?” he exclaims all of sudden.

     Hinata looks down at his fingers. Certainly, they are covered in tiny cuts and burns, with a couple band-aids here and there.

     “Ah, this?” he asks nonchalantly. “I’ve been learning how to cook.”

     Nishinoya makes an appreciative noise, and inspects Hinata’s hands more closely.

     “Alright, everybody!” Tanaka’s voice booms around the gym, and everyone looks up at him. “Let’s pack and leave, the bus is waiting for us outside!”

     “Yes, captain!” the rest call out in unison, and begin to move immediately.

     Tanaka approaches Hinata and Nishinoya, and crouches down to pick up his bag.

     “Wow, Ryuu, such a responsible and cool captain!” Nishinoya nudges him with his elbow, and Tanaka swats him away, blushing lightly.

     “Shut up, Noya!”

     Hinata giggles at the exchange, and then begins to pick his things up. He takes a moment to stare at his hands, smiling fondly at all the small scars that cover them.

~•~

      “Man, I’m so tired,” Hinata mumbles under his breath when he reaches the door to his apartment. He looks in his pocket for his keys, and then looks in the other when he doesn’t find them.

     He starts to get desperate when they aren’t in the fourth pocket checks.

     Hinata pats frantically at the front pockets of his coat, trying to remember if he left the keys in the gym locker room, or his classroom… Did he even grab them at all when he left home that morning?

     “Yachi!” he says aloud all of sudden.

     _“What an idiot, Yachi can open the door for me,”_ Hinata thinks while he knocks loudly on the door. He knocks again after a while, and then again. Hinata sighs loudly when Yachi doesn’t come out after he calls her name a couple times. _“What the hell is she doing?”_

     He takes out his phone and dials Yachi’s number. He waits impatiently while the phone rings.

     _“Shouyou?”_ Yachi answers. _“What happened?”_

     “Yachi, open the door, I’m outside!”

     _“What?”_ Yachi sounds evidently confused, and Hinata has to resist the urge to growl in frustration.

     “I think I forgot the keys this morning and I’m locked outside,” he explains. “I need you to open the door for me.”

     There’s a momentary silence on Yachi’s end of the line.

     _“Shouyou,”_ she begins, slowly. _“I’m not home right now.”_

     “What do you mean you’re no-?” Hinata gasps sharply with sudden realization. “Your date! You had a date tonight!”

     _“Yes, I told you like a thousand times!”_ Yachi sighs, and Hinata wants to slam his forehead against the door. _“I can still go home now and-”_

     “No way!” Hinata interrupts her. “Don’t you dare coming here!”

     _“You sure?”_ Yachi asks, still sounding doubtful.

     “Yes. Enjoy your date!”

     Hinata hangs up before Yachi can say another word. He looks at the closed door and sighs for what feels like the thousandth time that day.

     “What do I do now?” he says, thumping his forehead against the door.

~•~

     Hinata stands on the sidewalk outside the restaurant, staring at it like a lost child. The lights are off and almost all of the blinds are pulled down, except for the one that covers the door.

     _“Of course it’s closed. It’s super late_ , _”_ Hinata thinks, and lets out a groan. _“Why the hell did I come here, anyway?”_

     The bell attached to the front door rings, and Hinata looks up to find an unknown man staring there, holding the door open, and smiling gently at him.

     “I’m sorry, sir, we’re closed for the day,” he explains. Hinata opens his mouth to answer, just as the man’s eyes widen in recognition. “Ah, you are Hinata-kun, right?”

     “H-how do you know my name!?” Hinata stammers, taking a step back.

     “That’s…” Suga scratches the back of his head, looking for an answer that doesn’t involve revealing that he interrogated Kageyama during three different lunch breaks to get Hinata’s name. “I’ll go get Kageyama for you!” he ends up saying, sprinting inside before Hinata can say anything else. “You can come in if you want to!” Suga calls from over his shoulder, and then disappears into the kitchen.

     Hinata watches him go for a moment before stepping into the restaurant, closing the door behind him. Suga comes back after a few seconds, followed by Kageyama.

     “Hinata?” Kageyama says, surprised.

     “Hey!” Hinata greets him with a tiny smile.

     “What happened?”

     “I got locked out of my house, and Yachi isn’t home, so…”

     “But why are you here?”

     “I…” Hinata looks around the place, suddenly finding the wallpaper very interesting. He finally meets Kageyama’s eyes, and is surprised to find a little bit of concern in them instead of the usual anger. “I had nowhere else to go.”

     “Wow, you’re such an idiot,” Kageyama says without missing a beat, eliciting an offended noise from Hinata, and a giggle from Suga. Kageyama sighs, and scratches the back of his head. “Well, you can stay at my apartment for a while, I gue-”

     “You can close up today, Kageyama!” Suga interrupts him all of sudden.

     “Why would I want to-?” Kageyama starts, but his question is interrupted when Suga throws an arm over his shoulders and brings him down to his height to whisper into his ear.

     “The kitchen is all yours tonight, chef.” Suga responds to Kageyama’s confused expression with a quick wink. “I’ll take care of the inventories tomorrow morning.”

     Suga drops the keys on Kageyama’s hand, and with that, he’s walking out the door.

     “Goodnight, Kageyama, Hinata-kun!” he calls out before closing the door. He stops for a moment to smirk in Kageyama’s direction. “And good luck.”

     Hinata and Kageyama stare at the door for a moment, the gentle sound of the bell being the only thing to disturb the silence. Kageyama heaves a small sigh, and then goes to lock the door from the inside.

     “Kageyama?” Hinata asks with a small, confused frown. Without saying a word, Kageyama walks past him towards the back of the restaurant. “Where are you going?”

     “To the kitchen.”

     “Why are you going to the kitchen? Did you forget anything?”

     “I’m going to cook, obviously.”

     “Cook?” Hinata crooks his head to the side, confused, and Kageyama sighs with annoyance. He reaches the kitchen doorway, and turns around to look at him.

     “I’m going to cook you something, dumbass.”

     Kageyama wants to be annoyed by the childish, high-pitched sound that Hinata lets out before running towards him. He really does.

     But when he catches sight of Hinata’s gigantic grin, he can’t.

~•~

     “What are you gonna make?” Hinata asks, watching as Kageyama rummages around cabinets to grab the ingredients he’s gonna need.

     “Carbonara pasta.”

     “That’s-!”

     “Yup.”

     _“What you were trying to cook when we first met,”_ Kageyama finishes the thought in his mind. _“Goddammit, that sounds so romantic. Sugawara-san would be proud of me,”_ he thinks, and that’s enough to make him blush to the roots of his hair.

~•~

     He should stop doing this, he thinks. He should stop touching Hinata. He should stop slightly grazing his fingers across his cheeks while reaching out to take something out of a cupboard, or grabbing his hand to slide it off the counter when it’s bothering him, or “accidentally” nuzzling his hair when he reaches out into another cupboard, to look for something he doesn’t really need.

     He should stop, Kageyama thinks, because if the way his heart trashes wildly against his ribcage every time he feels even the smallest inch of Hinata’s skin against his is any indicator, he’ll probably die of a heart attack before his twenties.

     But he knows he won’t stop. He can’t.

     “Get off the counter,” Kageyama orders while he stirs the garlic and the pancetta together.

     “But I’m comfortable here!” Hinata objects from where he’s sitting on the counter next to the stove where Kageyama is cooking.

     “Then don’t whine if you get burned. Check if the pasta is ready.”

     Hinata does as he says, nodding his head when Kageyama looks at him. Kageyama moves to turn off the burner where the pasta is cooking, bumping his hip into Hinata’s knee in the process. Just as he’s reaching out to grab the pan with the pancetta, Hinata drops his head into his shoulder, and then presses his forehead against the crook of his neck. Kageyama immediately freezes up, hand still gripping the pan’s handle.

     “What are you doing?” he chokes out, without moving in the slightest.

     “I’m so tired…” Hinata mumbles, and his breath tickles Kageyama’s skin.

     They stay like that for a while, unmoving, until Kageyama gets used to the feeling of Hinata breathing against him, and he can no longer differentiate his heartbeat from Hinata’s.

     And then, suddenly, Hinata’s warmth is no longer against his skin.

     “D-don’t do weird things all of sudden, you idiot!” Kageyama stammers. Hinata smiles at him after leaning back and away from him.

     “Sorry, sorry,” Hinata says, stretching his arms over his head. And if Kageyama said he wasn’t staring at the smooth strip of skin that Hinata’s shirt reveals when it rides up his stomach, he’d be lying. “I’m just really, really tired.”

     Kageyama huffs for a moment in search of an answer, and then gives up when he finds none.

     “Why are you so upset?” Hinata asks, scrunching up his nose a little. “You touch me all the time, don’t you?”

     “Shut up and pass me that pasta fork!”

     “This one?

     “Yes, that one!”

     Kageyama isn’t ready to deal with Hinata’s antics, and he knows that.

     Their fingers brush together when Kageyama reaches out to grab the fork from Hinata’s hand, and Hinata smiles widely at him.

     No, he definitely isn’t ready.

     Holding back a sigh, Kageyama starts to grab the pasta from the water to put it in the pan where the pancetta is. He knows that Hinata is watching his every movement, so he is extra careful while doing it. They are silent for a while, until all the pasta is in the pan, and Kageyama begins to stir everything together.

     “You’re so amazing, Kageyama.”

     Kageyama looks up to give Hinata a questioning look, confused by the sudden praise. But Hinata isn’t looking at him; his eyes are fixed on the pan.

     “You make cooking seem so easy,” Hinata continues, and a soft smile finds its way into his lips while he speaks. “Not only that, but everything you make is so delicious and perfect.”

     “Hinata, you…” Kageyama mumbles, but he stops talking when Hinata’s eyes finally find his.

     “You’re really so amazing, Kageyama.”

     And that’s it. That’s all it takes for Kageyama to lean in, and close the space between them until their lips are pressed together.

     He feels Hinata tensing up, but he doesn’t stop kissing him. Hinata relaxes after a few seconds, enough to actually return the kiss, tilting his head to get a better angle.

     Finally, Kageyama leans away from Hinata’s lips, but staying close enough for their breaths to mingle together. His eyes find Hinata’s, brown, wide, and glossy, and they just stare at each other for a while. When he feels like his heart is going to explode, Kageyama steps back, clears his throat, and returns to his pan. He tries to look as nonchalant and relaxed as possible, a task that proves to be really hard when his heart feels like it will break out of his chest and run away.

     “Kageyama,” Hinata mumbles, snapping him out of his thoughts. Kageyama slowly turns to look at him, and his heart nearly jumps up to his throat when he notices how dazed Hinata looks, with his bright, heavy-lidded eyes and tousled hair. “Kiss me more…”

     Without a moment of hesitation, Kageyama drops everything to lean in and kiss Hinata again, a little harder this time. Hinata responds eagerly, leaning forward until their mouths are completely meshed together. Hinata’s lips are soft, so, _so_ soft, so sweet and nice against Kageyama’s, and when Hinata breaks the kiss to catch his breath, and stare silently at him, Kageyama knows that he can no longer stop kissing him, not even if he wanted to.

     Kageyama moves to stand between Hinata legs, and grabs his waist to pull him closer before bringing their lips together again. Hinata lets out a tiny moan, surprised, and then immediately throws his arms around Kageyama’s neck to press his chest against his.

     Slowly, Hinata parts his lips, and tentatively searches for Kageyama’s tongue. Kageyama follows his lead, this time, _just this time_ , and lets his tongue dart out to find Hinata’s. Hinata moans quietly again, and Kageyama hums in response, dragging his hands down from his waist to grip his hips.

     After a while, Hinata breaks the kiss, breathing ragged and cheeks flushed, just like Kageyama’s. He presses his forehead against Kageyama’s for a second, and then moves to press his lips to Kageyama’s neck.

     “Hinata,” Kageyama sighs, throwing his head back.

     “Kageyama,” Hinata mumbles against his neck, exploring Kageyama’s skin with his lips.

     Neither of them really know what to say, so they keep calling each other’s name until their lips find each other again, and they keep kissing like their lives depended on it.

     “Kageyama,” Hinata whispers against his lips again, but Kageyama silences him by kissing him again. Hinata accepts the kiss, and then hums urgently before breaking the kiss again. “Kageyama…”

     Kageyama groans dismissively and leans in to kiss him again. Hinata stops him by pressing his hands on his chest, earning an annoyed look and another groan.

     “Kageyama!”

     “What!?”

     “Something’s burning!”

     Kageyama blinks once, then looks at the pan, then looks at Hinata again. Then, he freaks out.

     “Shit, shit, shit!” he exclaims, scrambling to take the pan off the fire.

     “Wait, you’ll burn your ha-!” Hinata tries to warn him, but Kageyama is already trying to grab the pan from the border.

     “FUCK!”

     “Water, water!” Hinata screams, dragging Kageyama to the nearest sink to let the water run on his hand.

     “The pan!” Kageyama exclaims.

     “The pan!?”

     “Take the pan off the fire!”

     “Right!” Hinata chirps, and the turns towards the stove. He’s about to grab the pan just like Kageyama did, but stops himself to wrap his hand with a rag.

     Hinata puts the pan on the counter and turns the stove off, before turning to inspect the contents of the pan. Kageyama joins him, wiping his hand on his apron, and they both wince when they see the black, burned mess that remains.

     “I can’t believe it,” Hinata says after a while. “The great Kageyama Tobio _actually_ burned something!”

     The sound of Kageyama slapping the back of his head, and Hinata’s subsequent _“oof”_ resonate around the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so, first of all, [azeono](http://azeono.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr made [this gorgeous art for this fic](http://azeono.tumblr.com/post/123791107096/this-is-for-my-fave-ongoing-kagehina-fic-saffron), and you totally need to see it because it's wonderful! <3  
> Also, thanks a lot to my beta, Miss_Macabre_Grey, and thanks to all of you for all the amazing feedback I've been receiving, you guys are the best <3 <3 <3


	7. Chapter 7

     “Kageyama…”

     “Mmm?” Kageyama hums against him, before his tongue darts out to lick at his lower lip.

     “Kageyama, get off me…” Hinata wriggles on the couch, where he’s lying underneath Kageyama.

     “Why?” Kageyama asks, pulling away from the kiss to give him a look that seems almost offended.

     “The bread, it’ll burn!”

     Kageyama rolls his eyes, and leans down to start pressing his lips against Hinata’s neck in a shower of kisses that make him squirm and gasp for air.

     “Who cares about the goddamned bread?” Kageyama mumbles against the warmth of his boyfriend’s skin.

     Hinata presses his hands against Kageyama’s chest, and pushes upwards to separate him from his neck.

     “Who are you and what did you do to Kageyama?” he says in a serious tone, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

     “Ugh, go get your _stupid_ bread!”

     Hinata tilts his head upwards to press a tiny kiss to Kageyama’s chin, before slipping underneath him and off the couch to run into the kitchen.

     Kageyama rolls over to lie on his back and stare at the ceiling, frowning and pouting like a dejected puppy. He hears the sound of the oven being opened, and waits a couple seconds before jumping out the couch and walks towards the kitchen.

     He walks in just in time to see Hinata setting the bread on a metallic rack over the oven. He turns around at the sound of his footsteps, and smiles brightly at Kageyama.

     “Look, Kageyama! Doesn’t it look good?” he exclaims proudly.

     “It does,” Kageyama agrees, leaning forwards to look more closely at the bread. “Smells good, too.”

     “I know!”

     Hinata carefully grabs the rack and moves it to the countertop, humming lightly and smiling at his bread as if it was his firstborn.

     “ _I love bread, bread is good, especially when it’s made by you!_ ” Hinata sing-songs, moving his head from side to side like a child. Kageyama watches him closely, keeping a blank expression. Hinata turns around to face him, grin still in place. “Can we eat it now while it’s still warm?” he asks. His smile drops when he notices the serious frown in Kageyama’s face. “Kageyama?”

     Then, he lets out a shrill yelp when Kageyama grabs him by the waist, and effortlessly sets him on the counter so he’s sitting on it.

     “What are you doing, idiot!?” Hinata exclaims. Kageyama doesn’t answer, and instead takes a moment to appreciate the light blush that appears on Hinata’s cheeks when he slips between his legs to be face to face with him.

     “Stop being so cute, you dumbass,” Kageyama mumbles, before leaning in to kiss him softly.

     Hinata’s eyes widen for a moment, but he immediately closes them, and melts into Kageyama’s lips. He throws his arms around Kageyama’s neck and tilts his head into the kiss, and Kageyama responds by wrapping his arms around his waist to bring him closer.

     They keep kissing lazily, lips effortlessly sliding together, until Kageyama begins to trail tiny kisses on Hinata’s cheek, to end up pressing his lips behind his ear. Hinata sighs and throws his head back, eyes slipping closed when Kageyama’s lips travel down to kiss his neck.

     “Kageyama…” he mumbles with another sigh.

     “Could you please move in together so I can stop walking in on you two being _nasty_ in _my_ kitchen?”

     Hinata and Kageyama snap their head to look at the doorway, where Yachi is currently standing, and looking absolutely and thoroughly disgusted.

     Hinata splutters and stammers for a while, and Kageyama remains completely silent, eyes wide and mouth pressed into a fine line.

     “Oh, shut up, you just want me to leave so your girlfriend can move in!” Hinata says once he’s actually able to speak again.

     “Damn right I do, you freaking perv!” Yachi exclaims, pointing an accusing finger at him. Suddenly, her frown disappears to be replaced by a look of new-found interest. “Is that bread?”

~•~

     “Good morning,” Kageyama calls out once he opens the door and walks into the restaurant.

     “Mornin’, Lover Boy!” Suga answers from behind the counter, already wearing his uniform. He turns to give Kageyama a knowing smirk that makes him take a step back. “You’re unusually late today.”

     “That’s…” Kageyama begins, but he’s interrupted by a loud, booming voice coming from the kitchen.

     “Is Lover Boy finally here?”

     “Yup!” Suga answers.

     Ukai appears in the kitchen doorway, with a teasing smile already set on his lips.

     “Good morning, Ukai-san,” Kageyama greets him stiffly. “I’m sorry for being late.”

     “Nah, you’re not late at all,” Ukai says, waving his hand. “Besides, you gave me time to make a little something for you!”

     “For me?” Kageyama asks, confused, and more than a little scared.

     Ukai disappears into the kitchen, and comes back a few moments later, holding a tray in his hands. He walks towards Kageyama and proudly shows it to him.

     “Are these…?” Kageyama begins doubtfully, staring at the contents of the tray with a deep frown.

     “Gingerbread cookies,” Ukai cuts him off. He drops a hand on his shoulder and winks at him with malice. “For my ginger-loving sous-chef!”

     Kageyama stares at him in stunned silence as Suga bursts into hysterics behind them. The bell rings behind Kageyama’s back when someone opens the front door, but he doesn’t even bother to look who is it, too busy with staring at the cookies with evident horror.

     “Are we already messing with the King so early in the morning?” Tsukishima says behind him, and Kageyama turns to glare angrily at him. Tsukishima gives him one of his trademark smirks, and Kageyama braces himself for the incoming verbal smack down. “Cut the guy some slack. Can’t you see he already had a morning quarrel with his Queen?”

     Tsukishima points at his own neck, and Kageyama immediately slaps a hand to the side of his neck.

     But it’s already too late.

     “Whoa, is that a hickey!?” Ukai exclaims with wide eyes.

     “N-no, it’s not!”

     “It _totally_ is!”

     “It’s not!” Kageyama turns to give Suga a desperate look. “Sugawara-san, help me!”

     But Suga is too busy with clutching to his stomach with one hand, and the counter with the other, trying not to laugh himself into an early death. Ukai bursts out laughing as well, nearly dropping his cookies in the process.

     Kageyama groans and covers his face with his hands.

     _“I should start looking for a new job,”_ he thinks.

~•~

     Kageyama fiddles uncomfortably in his seat, looking around at all the unknown people who surround him. The bleachers are almost completely full, the game is about to start, and soon, he will be faced with the unavoidable truth that he doesn’t know jack-shit about volleyball.

     “Kageyama-san!”

     Kageyama snaps his head at the familiar voice, and lets out a soft sight of relief.

     “Yachi-san,” he greets with a small bow of his head. “I saved you a seat.”

     “Thanks!” Yachi slips into her seat, fanning herself with her hands. “I had to run so much! Am I too late?”

     “No, the game’s about to start.”

     Just then, both teams step into the court. They find Hinata immediately, looking minuscule amongst his teammates. But the look of determination and self-confidence in his face makes him look as much as gigantic as the rest of them.

     “Wahhh, Shouyou always looks so cool when he’s gonna play!” Yachi comments, swaying on her seat with evident excitement.

     “He does,” Kageyama agrees absently, eyes fixed on his boyfriend as he steps into the court and lines up with the rest of his team.

     “I’m gonna tell him you said that.”

     “Please don’t.”

     The teams bow respectfully, and then break into formation to start the game. Just before the arbiter blows the whistle, Hinata turns towards the bleachers, and smiles brightly at them.

     Kageyama can feel his heart swelling proudly inside his chest, and while Yachi whoops and raises his arms beside him, he allows himself to return the smile.

~•~

     Hinata’s hand quickly comes down to slam the ball into the opponent’s side of the court, and the entire gym erupts in cheers.

     “YES!” Yachi and Kageyama exclaim at the same time, raising from their seats.

     “You go, Shouyou!” Yachi calls out, hollowing her hands around her mouth.

     “Kick their asses!” Kageyama yells too, completely frenzied.

     Hinata turns to look at them with a bright smile, and playfully blows them a kiss. Tanaka’s hand immediately comes down to slap the back of his head.

     “Stop flirting with your boyfriend and focus!” he orders.

     “Yes, captain!” Hinata says, face turning pink, and his entire team has to make an inhuman effort to stifle their laughter.

~•~

     “Hinata, where are the wooden spoons?”

     “That drawer on your left,” Hinata answers, without taking his eyes off the pan he’s cooking on.

     Kageyama washes his hands, covered in flour, and dries them on his apron before looking inside the drawer. Hinata can hear him rummaging around for a while, and he can make a perfect mental picture of the frustrated frown he’s _sure_ Kageyama is sporting.

     “They are not here!” Kageyama complains. There’s some more rummaging, until Kageyama falls quiet. “Hinata, what’s this?”

     “What?” Hinata raises his gaze to Kageyama, and then promptly lets out a terrified scream.

     “‘ _Kiss the cook?_ ’” Kageyama reads, inspecting the hideous magenta apron with an incredulous frown. “What the hell?”

     “Give me that!” Hinata screeches, running to snatch the apron from Kageyama’s hands.

     “Where did you get that?” Kageyama asks with evident amusement, making Hinata turn a rather unflattering shade of pink.

     “Yachi,” Hinata says, and that really explains everything. He hides his face behind the apron, and Kageyama can’t stop himself from snorting.

     “Makes sense.”

     Hinata groans and buries his face deeper into the fabric. Kageyama gently grabs his wrists, and waits until Hinata looks up, face still pinkish.

     “I think it’s kinda cute,” Kageyama says teasingly, immediately earning a deadly glare from Hinata.

     “It’s _not_ cute!” Hinata exclaims. Then, he looks down at the apron, and a determined fire takes over his eyes. “I’m gonna burn it,” he announces.

     “No, don’t burn it, you serial apron-burner!”

     “Wow. That was a low blow,” Hinata deadpans. Both he and Kageyama burst out laughing after a few seconds.

     “We could use it,” Kageyama says, picking one corner of the apron between his index and his thumb to inspect the fabric.

     “But I already have an apron.” Hinata gestures to the flower-covered apron he’s wearing. “And it’s _way_ cuter than that… thing!”

     “You know,” Kageyama continues, completely ignoring Hinata. He drops the apron and takes a step closer to Hinata. Hinata watches him with wide eyes, but Kageyama is still looking down at the apron. Finally, he looks up to meet Hinata’s eyes, and smirks. “You would look nice wearing this-”

     “I’m not gonna-”

     “-and nothing else.”

     Hinata stares at Kageyama with a confused frown, making him feel more nervous with every passing second. Then, his eyes widen with realization, and he immediately turns a violent shade of pink again.

     “I’M NOT GONNA DO THE NAKED APRON FOR YOU, YOU PERV!”

     Kageyama opens his mouth to answer, but then his eyes dart to the doorway and he freezes in place, eyes wide and mouth still hanging open. Hinata turns to stare at the doorway too, and finds Yachi standing in the living room, keys still in hand and purse hanging from her shoulder, staring at them with a completely unamused expression. Without a word, she turns her head and walks away.

     Hinata and Kageyama wait until they hear the sound of her bedroom door being closed to silently return to their cooking.

     Later that day, they make a vow to _never_ mention that incident again.

~•~

     “I’m gonna miss you so much!”

     “Yachi, I’m moving right upstairs.” Hinata calls out from the kitchen. He rolls his eyes while carrying a small box full of plates and cutlery into the living room, where Yachi is busy with packing Hinata’s books.

     “I’ll still miss you!” Yachi pouts at him from the floor.

     “Weren’t you the one who wanted me to move in with Kageyama?”

     “Yeah, but I never thought you would!”

     “We’ll bring you food,” Kageyama says, appearing from Hinata’s bedroom with another box under his arm. “And you can come up to cuddle Hinata whenever you want.”

     That seems to soothe Yachi, who spends the rest of the packing process humming and singing under her breath.

~•~

     Hinata takes his mother’s cookbook from its box, and carefully places it on top of the microwave. He stares fondly at it, and nods his head before turning around to step into the living room.

     “Done!” he announces to Kageyama, who’s lying on his couch with an arm thrown over his face, and his legs sprawled over the cushions. “All moved in!”

     Kageyama responds with a tiresome groan. Hinata looks at him for a moment, and smirks, before silently approaching the couch.

     “Hey, Kageyama,” he says softly. He waits until Kageyama removes his arm from over his eyes to look at him, before giving him a wild grin. “Catch!”

     With that, Hinata flops on top of Kageyama, effectively knocking the breath out of him.

     “What the hell, you idiot!?” Kageyama chokes out, slapping him across the head.

     “I wanted to cuddle, and you looked dead,” Hinata explains, wrapping himself around his boyfriend, and resting his cheek on his chest.

     “So you decided to kill me more!?”

     Hinata laughs, and Kageyama growls, but still throws his arms lazily around his waist to hold him in place. He’s about to fall asleep, when Hinata begins to squirm in his arms.

     “What now?” he asks with a frown.

     “I wanted to text Yachi, but I can’t find my phone,” Hinata sits up on Kageyama’s stomach and looks around the living room. “Where did I put it? Did I leave it in the kitchen?”

     “I’m gonna call you so you can find it.” Kageyama grabs his own phone from the coffee table and calls Hinata’s phone.

     They wait for a moment until they hear Hinata’s ringtone. It rings near them, and they sit still until they can feel it vibrating on couch.

     “Here.” Kageyama slides his hand between the cushion and the couch and fishes out Hinata’s phone. He stares at the screen, and his face immediately turns into a massive frown.

     “What the hell is this!?” Kageyama exclaims, sitting up and nearly shoving the phone into Hinata’s face.

     “Your contact name,” Hinata explains nonchalantly.

     “‘Grumpy-ass Cooking Nerd!?’” Kageyama yells, and Hinata nods. “We’ve been dating for months, and you still haven’t changed my contact name!?”

     “Geez, I’m sorry!” Hinata says with an eye-roll. “What did you expect, something stupid like ‘Sweet Pea’, or ‘Baby Boo’?”

     “No, dumbass, but I’m your boyfriend!” Kageyama turns his head to side in an offended gesture, and Hinata has to recur to every ounce of self-control he has to avoid calling him “cute” when he notices that he’s blushing. “I expected something less… offensive.”

     Hinata heaves a fake-annoyed sigh and snatches his phone from Kageyama’s hands. Kageyama watches intently as he taps away on the screen, smirking the whole time.

     “Here you go, then!”

     Hinata shows the screen to Kageyama, who immediately turns a deep shade of pink when he reads the words _“Cute-ass Cooking Nerd”_ above his phone number.

     “H-Hinata, you idiot!”

     Hinata bursts into hysterical laughter, throwing his arms around Kageyama’s neck and burying his face into his shoulder.

     Kageyama stays still for a moment, but then he sighs and hugs him back, defeated.

     _“At least he thinks I’m cute.”_

~•~

     There’s countless memories of endless cooking lessons with his mother stored inside his mind. There’s a special one, though, one that his mind loves to conjure when he least expects it: the way his mother smiled, and the softness of her voice when she told him the same thing she used to tell him every time she finished tying her apron behind her back.

     “Listen, Tobio,” she said, bending down to be face to face with him. “You wanna know what the most important thing is when it comes to cooking?”

     As the years passed, she had to bend down less and less to look at her son, until one day she began looking up. Their physical dynamics changed, but Kageyama’s response never did: an enthusiastic nod, and the faintest of smiles. As if he didn’t already know what she was going to say.

     “When it comes to cooking, the most important thing is having someone you want to cook for,” she would say, index finger raised, and a serious look on her face. It was a serious matter after all. “I cook for you and your dad.”

     Then, her face would soften, and she would playfully boop her son’s nose with her finger.

     “And someday, you’ll find someone you will want to cook for!”

~•~

     Kageyama slowly opens his eyes, and then closes them again when the early morning sunlight hits him in the face. He stirs for a moment, and then stretches his arms and legs. His knee bumps into a thigh when he bends it again, and his left arm falls around a waist when he finishes stretching it.

     “Morning,” comes Hinata’s soft voice against his ear, accompanied by a soft kiss to his temple.

     Kageyama turns around to face Hinata, eyes still closed, and he blindly searches for his lips, kissing them immediately once he finds them. He finally opens his eyes to find Hinata smiling at him, eyes bright, cheeks flushed with remnants of sleepiness, and wild orange hair spread across the pillow.

     “Morning,” Kageyama mumbles groggily, and then kisses Hinata again.

     Hinata snuggles against Kageyama’s chest, and Kageyama immediately wraps his arms around him. They are silent for a while, and Kageyama is still trying to open his eyes again to fight the invading sunlight, when Hinata speaks up.

     “Hey, Kageyama, tell me,” he mumbles. He looks up at him from inside his arms, and Kageyama responds with a look of unabashed endearment. “Who do you cook for?”

     There’s a quick exchange of gentle smiles, and not a single moment of hesitation.

     “You, of course.”

     Then, a gigantic grin and some nuzzling, a face-full of orange hair, and a tiny kiss placed on top of it.

     “I love you too, Kageyama.”

     And finally, another grin, this one hidden, and another tiny kiss.

     “Shut up, dumbass.”

~•~

     Every time someone asks how they met, Kageyama can’t stop himself from groaning, knowing full-well when he sees the tiny smile on Hinata’s lips, what his next words are gonna be.

     “Well, he was really hot, but I was the one who set the kitchen on fire.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the end, friends!  
> First of all, I want you to know that [fandom-grey](http://fandom-grey.tumblr.com/post/124614573300/i-wanted-to-save-fan-art-for-allen-walkers-for-her), [nicolasdean](http://nicolasdean.tumblr.com/post/124474385859/fckin-finally-saffron-and-cayenne-pepper-x-by), and [ayedisgrace](http://ayedisgrace.tumblr.com/post/124810567409/this-was-the-first-thing-that-came-to-my-mind-when) made some gorgeous art for this fic, and you should go see it, like, now! (If you made art for this fic but it's not linked here, you should totally tell me, cause I've probably haven't seen it!)  
> Now, I want to thank every one of you for reading my story, and for all the amazing feedback I've received from you. I love you all, and I hope all the cakes and pasta you eat in the future are delicious and amazing <3 <3 <3  
> See you soon!


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